Kitchen Con: Writing on the Restaurant Racket

"The difference between Gordon Ramsay and a talking pig is that Gordon Ramsay never shuts up."

—From Kitchen Con

Our consumer culture can’t help but get wrapped up in designer crazes— these days our collective attention is focused on the designer food frenzy. Chefs are our newest celebrities and their restaurants are their stages, but hidden behind the elegant façade of fine dining exists the stark and sometimes shocking reality of the food industry.

Renowned food critic Trevor White exposes what goes on behind the scenes in the high-stakes world of the restaurateur. Diners, be forewarned: this biting critique of restaurant culture shows today’s most celebrated restaurants for what they really are: greedy, ostentatious businesses solely dedicated to the fame of their owners.

Kitchen Con pays tribute to the history of dining out, starting with the first restaurants and moving on to the most fashionable and well-known kitchens in New York, Paris and London. Witty, humourous and polished, White takes his reader on a whirlwind trip through the restaurant racket, sparing no one!

Trevor White is your classic bourgeois loser who happened to be in the right place at the right time. Forrest Gump meets Chocolate Factory Charlie, he parlayed a slight connection with food into a successful career as a restaurant critic in the great cities of the world, before returning to Dublin, where he now publishes the best-selling restaurant guide in Ireland.