BROKEN SAUCE / THE HOUSE RULES
Good taste. Odd habits.
Food is where broken sauce starts. Curiosity decides where we go next.
A good magazine should have a point of view. Ours has room for a carefully made sauce, a terrible-looking café with an excellent lunch, and an argument worth having after the plates are cleared. We take the work seriously. We try to remember we are also people eating dinner.
Respect the work. Question the fuss.
A cook getting a hundred lunches out on time deserves our attention. So does a beautiful dining room. Neither price nor popularity gets the last word. Tell us what is on the plate, how it was made and why it matters.
Keep a chair for the disagreement.
Before publishing a strong opinion, ask what the most convincing person on the other side would say. If the argument only works against an idiot, it needs another draft. We can be sharp without being lazy.
Give small things unreasonable attention.
The final chip. The butter that arrives too cold to spread. A chair that makes you want to order another drink. Our Department of Small Obsessions has a deliberately narrow brief: notice the detail everyone else steps over.
Allow the detour.
The story might begin with breakfast and end beside a surf break, a painted wall or a golf course in the rain. There should be a reason to follow it. A fashionable postcode is not a reason.
Leave room to be wrong.
Credit the source. Separate an opinion from a reported fact. Correct a mistake where the reader can find it. Never invent a visit, a conversation or a test to make a sentence sound better.
Know when to put the camera down.
Dinner has a temperature. People have an appetite. The picture should serve the story, and occasionally the best editorial decision is to get on with eating.
Ambitious about the magazine. Relaxed about the seating plan.