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Michelin stars are awards coveted by chefs worldwide who want their restaurants to be put on the gastronomic map. It’s a badge of honor, for sure. However, it’s not always the indication of quality that many of us assume it to be.
Writer Geraldine DeRuiter, the founder of the Everywhereist blog, went into excruciatingly hilarious detail about her horrendous dinner at “the worst Michelin starred restaurant, ever,” called Bros’ in Lecce, in southern Italy, in the ‘heel’ of the country’s ‘boot’ on the map.
The meal was expensive, pretentious, and Geraldine didn’t hold back any punches in her witty, snappy, and funny critique that had me taking notes for the next time I have a bad meal and need to vent. From actually rancid food and tiny portions to rude staff members and getting citrus foam served in a plaster cast of the chef’s mouth, this wasn’t the type of experience to gush about to your friends. This was something to call out.
“Maybe the staff just ran out of food that night. Maybe they confused our table with that of their ex-lover’s. Maybe they were drunk. But we got twelve kinds of foam, something that I can only describe as ‘an oyster loaf that tasted like Newark airport,'” she writes.
Naturally, the story was so good, it went viral on Twitter and beyond. It’s better than fiction and we hope you enjoy reading about it all as much as I did, dear Pandas. You’ll find Geraldine’s highlights from the awful meal for her social media below, but if you’d like to read the story in full, you can visit her blog right over here. Floriano Pellegrino, the chef at Bros’, later responded with a 3-page statement, likening his food to art.
Geraldine told Bored Panda more about her experience at the restaurant. “It’s honestly hard to pick the worst thing about this meal,” she said. “It was a symphony of mistakes made by the kitchen. But honestly, the worst part? It was that the food didn’t even taste good and it was so, so expensive compared to other, wonderful meals we’ve had in Lecce.”
Meanwhile, pie artist, author, and food expert Jessica Leigh Clark-Bojin told me that it’s important to keep our sense of humor no matter how badly the meal seems to be going. “If nothing else, you’ll have a great story to tell later…” Scroll down for Bored Panda’s interviews with Geraldine and Jessica.
More info: Twitter | Facebook | Everywhereist.com | Book
Writer Geraldine visited Michelin-starred restaurant Bros’ in Italy. Unfortunately, her experience was intensely negative
Image credits: bros’
The blogger explained everything that was wrong with the dinner. Her story was so fascinating, it instantly went viral
Image credits: everywhereist
Geraldine said that she isn’t sure exactly why some chefs “sacrifice everything for aesthetics,” but she has some ideas. “I guess they’ve forgotten what it means to actually be a chef. They’ve let ego overtake everything else,” she told Bored Panda.
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“I think that food can be so overworked and so far removed from its original source as to become pretentious, but when that happens fault obviously lies with the chef,” the writer said that the fault ultimately lies with the chef, not anyone else.
I also asked Geraldine for some advice for those of you Pandas who enjoy her style of writing and would like to follow in her footsteps but feel a tad too shy to show your work to the world. According to the writer, we should all just go for it.
“The internet is full of people who are going to scream at you, whether you voice your opinion or not. So you might as well voice your opinion. And honestly, what are you waiting for?”
Pie artist Jessica gave Bored Panda some awesome insights into why some restaurants have absolutely tiny portions. “Tiny is relative!” she said that the size of the dishes very much depends on who is eating.
“Some restaurants have ‘tasting menus’ with intentionally small portions to enable guests to sample many different types of dishes without over-stuffing themselves. Of course, the sticker price on these small tasting dishes at ‘fancy’ restaurants may be comparable to the price of a full entree at a conventional family restaurant, which can influence expectations when you aren’t already familiar with the establishment you are attending,” she told Bored Panda.
According to her, it’s always best to do some upfront research on the restaurant you’ll be going to if you have any worries about the type of food and the size of the portions you might be served. “If portion size is a concern for you, check out the restaurant’s Instagram account first and get a sense of what the food looks like before you go, and you’ll avoid disappointment.” However, research doesn’t always pan out! Sometimes, there’s a nasty shock waiting for you, even if the restaurant has glowing reviews.
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“This was the largest course of the 27 (We got six noodles and one piece of bread each) I’ve added the bread plate for scale.”
Image credits: everywhereist
“A course for *two* people at Bros”
Image credits: everywhereist
Most annoying aspects from the whole dinner experience:
Image credits: everywhereist
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Image credits: everywhereist
“Rand holding up one of the courses – a paper-thin fish cracker – in its entirety”
Image credits: everywhereist
“This was a main course. It’s about a tablespoon of food”
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Image credits: everywhereist
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