Today’s Maine Sunday Telegram includes an article about how chefs are using pop-up dinners to hone their vision and makes steps to their future success.
Pop-ups sometimes feature buzzy chefs visiting from out of town, or offer sneak menu previews of soon-to-open restaurants, like the Prentice Hospitality Group’s recent pop-ups of Douro at its sister restaurants, Twelve and Evo. But they’re particularly valuable to up-and-coming local chefs looking to try out their concepts on the dining public without having to make a major financial investment.
It also includes an article about the book Restaurant by UNE professor and former Portland Phoenix restaurant critic Brian Duff.
“To me, it’s this thing about the particular way being in a restaurant can make a certain kind of conversation possible. I genuinely believe that there is something about the experience of feeling really nourished and cared for that can set us up,” he said as we chatted at the back of the u-shaped lunch counter at The Ugly Duckling in Portland. “Vulnerability and anxiety are dissipated a little bit.”