Critics Criticise. Writer’s right?

February 24, 2013 Thomas Kilroy

Vanity got the better of me this weekend. To help promote this humble little blog I sent a tweet to Jay Rayner in the hope of tapping into his Seventy Six Thousand followers with this:

Hi @jayrayner1, any chance of a cheeky RT? The Art of Menu Engineering: Winning Words Your Menu Needs Today: t.co/Eh0imo2Mwh (Thanks)

I didn’t give it another thought as I was sure it would be ignored. Which is why I was pleasantly surprised to get a reply from Jay a few minutes later. Well pleasant may not be the word. If you’re not on Twitter, here it is:

@mykitchensync I'd like to think you're taking the piss because 95% of that is the worst advice I have ever read. Sadly, I fear you mean it.

Mightier than the sword: master of the dark art of criticism.

OOF! What a kick in the ribs. I read the words again, but still couldn’t find a glimmer of positivity. (OK, so 5% of my piece was not the worst advise he ever read. That’s good, right?)

As I processed it, I kept thinking: How belligerent is that? Why doesn’t he agree with my viewpoint? Now what am I going to do? It would have been easy to rattle off some stupid tweet, but who needs to start a flame war (that's a pissing contest, Chef) which Mr. Rayner would win hands down. So I just tapped out a rather meek;

@jayrayner1 Fair point Jay. Thanks for taking the time to read it.

My earlier link to a piece by Seth Godin sums up the fact that you can’t please everyone. Jay Rayner’s job is to sell newspapers, his new book and an inordinate love for beards. A nice incendiary comment will do that. Or even a harmless tweet if you have the platform.

To the Specialist in Soft Facilities Management, the Section Manager at John Lewis Partnership and the Catering Consultant in America who valued my article enought to ‘like’ or comment positively on LinkedIn, I thank you.

To Jay Rayner, thank you also. I’ll still vote for you again should you enter the Beard of the Year contest this year. Even if your point of view, just like your prominent goatee, really bristles .