Giles Coren

A collection of columns written mostly for The London Times, Coren writes about so many things that make him angry: dirty hotels, teenage thugs, unethical estate agents, people who don't clean up after their dogs, women who lie about what they find attractive in a man, wealthy people who brag about skiing holidays. There are several things I don't agree with him about, such as bullfighting being entertainment, yet I liked this book. I know there must be something weird about me thinking of a show more book about hated things and people as a comfort read, but I did. I'm sure it has to do with how much I loved the program Supersizers Go... that Coren co-hosted. show less

London Times restaurant critic and Supersizers Go... co-host Coren discusses his dining experiences in both his professional and personal life, what diners should expect in terms of quality and service, searching for quality food on his holidays, food trends and the difference in his dining experience once a restaurant realizes a food critic is there. Coren is funny, mean, crude and knowledgeable.
In one chapter, he and a few of his professional friends, including an actor known for playing show more Falstaff, re-create a drunken five day episode from the life of the artist Hogarth, stopping at taverns and restaurants and trying to eat and drink as authentically as possible. There are passages that are hilarious. But there are also plenty of passages of the mandatory America bashing that has become the pattern for British non-fiction written in the last ten years or so. Probably because I read so many British books, I'm sick of it. Apparently everything published must include a bigoted rant about how loud, uneducated and fat Americans are, and I can't decide if these are books that weren't expected to be read by Americans or if they're really, really hoping Americans do read them. He calls New Yorkers snobs, says the British are above such things as snobbery, then goes on immediately to relay instances of being treated so disrespectfully in British restaurants because they didn't recognize him.Coren writes of the need for doggy bags to become acceptable in British society as restaurants are throwing away too much food and it's harming the planet. Then there's an asterisk, which leads the reader to a paragraph at the bottom of the page, to find this:

...I do not want doggy bags to become so universally thought of as a necessity at the end of a meal that we get the sort of escalation they have had in America- the world's fattest country- where the already giant portions that engendered the doggy bag fad have had to be expanded to ensure that people can always take a bag, and where people, giant fat people, actually complain if they have been able to eat everything on their plates and have nothing to take away.

Since this was written before Coren's recent North America reality show, and he talks about what America is like, but never actually talks about being in America, I wonder where he got all this information about Americans. show less