Every Rage Tweet John Tesar Fired Off in Response to Leslie Brenner’s 3-Star Review
John Tesar went on a scorched earth Twitter tirade against Dallas Morning News critic Leslie Brenner following a tepid review with a few bright spots, but still one that only scored him 3 out of 5 stars at Knife. In an interview with us from just over a year ago, Tesar admitted he and Leslie had standing tension:
I don’t play with the media, but I’m not afraid of the media anymore. I’m not afraid of food critics anymore. Leslie Brenner is probably one of the worst food critics I’ve ever seen in my entire life, because she’s destroying star structure, and she doesn’t have a lot of respect in Dallas. And I want to respect her, it’s not like I’m a chef who’s like, “Screw the critic!” I want her to love me. She has daddy issues, and I have mommy issues with her. The rest of the village loves me, and Leslie can’t deny that I’m a good chef, but she always has to say things like “You know, when I was a kid, the truffles were better in France than the ones I had at Spoon. And the caviar, it’s not the best in the world. If I’m going to give it five stars…”
And everyone knew that Spoon deserved the five-star rating, compared to whatever else was going on in Dallas. That doesn’t mean anything to the rest of the United States, but if I don’t have the approval of the local critic, I’m screwed. Because [The Braiser] might want to talk to me, but Food & Wine isn’t going to want to talk to me. You know, what’s his name, Andrew Knowlton’s not going to buzz through my restaurant for fifteen minutes and put me on one of those lists of the 50 Best New Restaurants, which to me, is a great accolade, and I would love the attention, but to me it’s bullshit.
So, there’s clearly some fraught chef/critic relations going on here, but Tesar really fueled the fire with the following series of rage tweets:
@lesbren fuck you ! Your reviews are misleading poorly written,self serving and you have destroyed the star system and you really suck
— John Tesar (@ChefJohnTesar) July 17, 2014
@BlakeBowyer @lesbren Dallas doesn't need a miserable self serving food critic with a chip on her shoulder who make reviews personal
— John Tesar (@ChefJohnTesar) July 17, 2014
@ChefGregLeon @lesbren you have no idea what you are talking about
— John Tesar (@ChefJohnTesar) July 17, 2014
@AndraZeppelin @lesbren no hot head Leslie made it personal
— John Tesar (@ChefJohnTesar) July 17, 2014
@marcmoulinet exactly except Leslie is no a critic she's a narcissist
— John Tesar (@ChefJohnTesar) July 17, 2014
@HughAcheson hear you chef but this was a special event there is unbalanced history hear had to stand up for my self
— John Tesar (@ChefJohnTesar) July 17, 2014
@alisoncook @lesbren Allison I respect you because you have done so much for the city of Houston our critic has only hurt us as a city #fact
— John Tesar (@ChefJohnTesar) July 17, 2014
@HughAcheson when a critic crosses the line and makes it personal have to stand up for yourself #onlyafoodcritc
— John Tesar (@ChefJohnTesar) July 17, 2014
@HughAcheson great advise I spoke my mind and now I am done her view is contrary to everyone else's and for her own benefit
— John Tesar (@ChefJohnTesar) July 17, 2014
And now she’s banned from Knife. This is like, the alternate ending to Jon Favreau’s Chef.
[Twitter]
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