Wait, So How Much Butter, Exactly?

Food critic Troy Johnson recently pointed out on his blog that the difference between your mediocre homemade sauce and that sublime Cabernet reduction at your favorite bistro is more than just the chef’s skill. It’s butter. And often cream. And he thinks we deserve to know just how much. “Uncle Sam makes a piss-poor dining companion,” says Johnson, who’s proposing local chefs do it voluntarily, as a “service to our expanding midsections.” You can probably guess how the chefs responded.

Should all restaurants list nutrition info?

Richard Blais

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“I don’t believe [we] should list nutritional information …  that makes a restaurant institutional. Order vegetables, put vegetable dishes on menus… That’s enough.”

—Richard Blais, chef-owner, Juniper & Ivy (opening in March)

Matt Gordon

“It’d be insane, because some things you just shouldn’t know! Rather than calorie counts, we should focus on good ingredients.”

—Matt Gordon, chef-owner, Urban Solace

Tracy Borkum

“Oftentimes these menus are changing daily due to seasonality, so from a logistical standpoint, it’s not really viable to provide this information.”

—Tracy Borkum, owner, Urban Kitchen Group

Trey Foshee

“If it’s a place I eat at for lunch every day, then yes, it would be helpful. If it’s my anniversary, then I don’t really want to know.”

—Trey Foshee, chef-partner, George’s at the Cove

Arturo Kassel

“Could not disagree more. I happen to be in Mexico, otherwise I’d track you down and [enact inappropriate violence] on you.”

—Arturo Kassel, CEO, Whisknladle Hospitality