In last week’s Time, food writer Josh Ozersky offered advice on how to have a delicious wedding. Instead of going through a caterer, he suggests, pick and choose your favorite dishes from your favorite restaurants, and voila — goodbye dry chicken and rice pilaf, hello banh mi and bucatini all’amatriciana.
If only it were so simple. As one in the throes of nuptial planning, who is forgoing a caterer in favor of some restaurant favorites (prior to reading this article mind you, so don’t go calling me a copy cat), let me tell you, this is a tough road. No caterer means no wait staff, no serving dishes, no steam plates, no linens. It is a serious DIY undertaking.
So I was a little irritated when I read Ozersky’s piece. First because he stole my idea, the rat, but more because for him, with a bevy of celebrity chef friends, the whole curated reception seemed like a piece of (unconventional, gourmet wedding) cake.
But I felt vindicated today when one of my favorite restaurant critics, the Village Voice’s Robert Sietsema ripped Ozersky a new one on the Voice’s Fork in the Road blog. Like me, Sietsema was critical of Ozersky for framing the article as a service piece, advice on how to have an “uncatered” wedding, when the Time writer’s experience was clearly a rarefied one. But his larger criticism is that Ozersky failed to disclose that he received the food for free. That the chefs mentioned in the article were receiving invaluable Time Magazine coverage in what was clearly some kind of quid pro quo arrangement goes against all sort of journalistic ethics, Sietsema argues. And besides, the rat stole my idea.
Did something like this for my wedding 7 years ago or 6 or whatever. We had pizza from a local pizza parlor (kids loved it), ribs from a barbecue place, quiche and salad from a local bakery/cafe and a bunch of other stuff from various local restaurants. It worked out great. We did have a person coordinating the wedding and she hired servers, but the food was basically a buffet style on one floor just below the floor that had the tables and dancing. People were encouraged to get up and mingle and eat as they felt like it. It worked out great.
Comment by Erik Nabler — June 25, 2010 @ 6:19 pm