The Montreal melon, bis
Genetic detective work may have succeeded in reviving the fabled Montreal melon – but you might have to go to La Pocatière to taste it.
CBC also has a podcast on why the melon disappeared. It’s a bit talky, but – like things I’ve read – they conclude that the melon was tricky to cultivate and didn’t travel well. That was why it was a delicacy for the wealthy. But its disappearance seems to have been a more complicated matter – the original farmlands where it was grown were urbanized, the market demanded hardier produce, and fashions among the affluent had moved on.
Orr 15:33 on 2024-06-08 Permalink
The writer of the Montreal Melon story Daphne Cameron is one of the more interesting (also: one of the few) actual reporters currently on the local food and agriculture beat. As legendary local food columnist Julian Armstrong once told me, food is a huge, rich beat. There are so many food stories that are right out there, waiting for their time in the sun.
Kate 17:01 on 2024-06-08 Permalink
Everyone has opinions on food, but if you’re going to be taken seriously as a critic, you either have to have serious chef training, or food science training, or both. Ideally you’d have travelled widely too. And then, of course, you need to be able to write.
CE 19:13 on 2024-06-08 Permalink
Were the old school restaurant critics for newspapers and magazines typically chefs or people with training/experience in the industry? It always seemed like they were journalists with a keen interest in eating good food and writing about it.
Kate 23:00 on 2024-06-08 Permalink
Anthony Bourdain’s credibility came from having trained and worked as a chef for many years. I suppose that’s who I was thinking of, but anyone writing about food at a high level needs to base their responses on something more solid than “I liked this, I didn’t like that” – no?
Bill 17:29 on 2024-06-09 Permalink
Helen Rochester has a street named after her. Lesley Chesterman never will and Marie-Claude Lortie is doing far more significant work now.
Joey 19:51 on 2024-06-09 Permalink
Did Bourdain ever write restaurant criticism? He certainly used food as his niche and was a much of a journalist as anyone, but I don’t think he ever did many reviews…
Kate 20:26 on 2024-06-09 Permalink
In a way, all those TV shows where he travels and eats in restaurants and discusses the food are a kind of restaurant reviewing.