Sir – Your new Weekend format is a great improvement with the glaring exception of your ‘food and drink’ column. The best that can be said for your reviewer Katherine MacAlister is that, in her own words in this week’s dreadful article: ‘things can only get better’ (we hope). The imagery was laboured and strangulated: ‘stocky little squares of ham hock being ferried into our mouths’…‘crushed ice which resembled a hush puppy’.
Foreign expressions are a minefield and best avoided (difficult for food writer): ‘amuse bouche’ should be hyphenated.
But the crass solecisms in basic English usage are unforgivable: ‘the few other table’s occupants…’ …and her dinner companion who ‘stared inexplicably at the brown baked parcels that resembled fig rolls’.
On a matter of tone she needs to learn that a reviewer’s role is wider than simply to trash a place. Come back Chris, Rosemarie, mother-in-law — all is forgiven.
Rebeccah Wise, Oxford