A young food blogger who demanded that he and his three
companions be given free meals at an upscale restaurant in the Joo
Chiat area has sparked a huge furore online.
The group of four had walked into Private Affairs, a small but
exclusive eatery in Joo Chiat, for its Sunday champagne brunch
promotion that costs S$68++ per person.
The blogger in question, Brad Lau, who runs a food blog called
Ladyironchef, had informed the management on Friday that he would
be coming down to review the Sunday Brunch promotion.
On the day itself, he and his partner came down at about 1.30pm,
followed by his two other companions, each of whom came down half
an hour apart.
The four of them had brunch until 4.30pm, even when the
restaurant’s official brunch hours was from 11.30 am to 3.30pm.
Brad and his partner also enjoyed two glasses of champagne
each.
When presented with the final bill of $435, the blogger
initially refused to pay and repeatedly told the restaurant’s chef,
“I never pay for food in any restaurant.”
The restaurant eventually offered to waive off the cost of the meal
for him and his partner as well as the cost of the champagne out of
goodwill, thus lowering the bill to $159.
Still upset but finally relenting to pay, the blogger then threw
his credit card onto the bar counter in front of the cashier before
storming out.
Private Affairs’ operations director Ross Valentine, 38, confirmed
the incident to Yahoo! Singapore.
He said, “This blogger looked very aggressive and was quite
arrogant. The fact that he also walked in with his friends at
staggered timings created quite a bit of problems for my chef de
cuisine, who has to prepare and present his food at just the right
times.”
“We decided to waive off the meal and champagne cost for him and
his partner out of goodwill. But when we asked him when the
review of the meal would be coming out, he said he was not obliged
to write anything if the food wasn’t good enough,” he
added.
Yahoo! Singapore emailed Brad Lau for his reaction but has yet to
receive a reply.
The incident, however, has enraged the local food blogging
community.
Glenn Lee, who runs popular food blog Hungryepicurean.com since
late last year, posted an open letter criticising the blogger’s
behaviour for “tarnishing the good name of the community.”
Lee, 22, told Yahoo! Singapore, “We are food bloggers and I’m
pretty sure the intentions of all of us in the community is to
share the love that we have for food and writing.”
“But what this certain blogger has done is highly detrimental to
the integrity of the community as a whole and I felt the need to
stand up for what I strongly believe in,” he said.
Kaelyn Ong, 22, who posted an entry entitled ”STOP asking for free
food” on her food blog, My Food Sirens II, also expressed her
disgust.
“I’m surprised. It’s beyond my understanding how someone can
actually request for a free meal on the house just because he’s a
food blogger,” she told Yahoo! Singapore.
“Anyone can be a food blogger these days, all it takes is a camera
and a blog… does that mean restaurants have to sponsor everyone for
their meals?” she added.
She also apologised to restaurants on behalf of the food blogging
community and said ”not all of us are such bad eggs”.
Renowned food expert KF Seetoh, who runs the popular
makansutra.com, said the blogger in question lost his integrity by
refusing to pay.
“The best position is to be invisible, pay for your own food. When
you pay for your own food, you don’t take any prisoners when you
write,” he said.
But what if the restaurant offers to give bloggers a free
meal?
“Then I won’t write about your restaurant. Even if they offer me
50% off the total bill, and if I write about it, they will take my
review with a 50% pinch of salt. Some of them, after eating, they
call the chef out and ask him to change this and that on the menu.
Some would then say, let me do a consultancy role for you. You do
what I say and I write nice things.
“My stand is, be neutral. I pay, I say and then I rate,” he
concluded.
http://sg.yfittopostblog.com/2010/08/23/food-blogger-who-asks-for-free-meal-sparks-outrage-online/
