Critic Blasts Dead Chef By Accident

Errors, they happen and the sign of a good journalist is admitting you messed up.  Another sign of a good journalist is not making the mistake– say blasting a dead chef and confusing the name of a restaurant with a form of cancer— in the first place, but we digress.

Canada’s “Hamilton Spectator” apologized earlier this week for the following mistake:

In the June 16 edition, the name of Hamilton waterfront restaurant Sarcoa was misspelled. The Spectator regrets the error.

What did they call the restaurant?  Sarcoma– a form of cancer.

That’s all good, we get it, typos happen.  The following mistake by the “Sacramento Bee” leaves us scratching our heads a bit.

In Blair Anthony Robertson’s recent review of “Silva’s Sheldon Inn” he calls out Chef Don Brown for not creating a “foodie destination.”  The problem is Brown has been dead for more than two years.

This is no secret, even the restaurant’s website notes the passing of Brown, a nephew of the restaurant’s founders.

Ouch.

Bring on the damage control.

First there was an apology from the writer in a blog entry on the paper’s website:

I made an unfortunate error in today’s restaurant review of Silva’s Sheldon Inn. I failed to connect with the restaurant’s owners prior to publication. Had I, I would have learned that Don Brown, the longtime executive chef at Biba who later became sous chef at Silva’s Sheldon Inn, died in 2010. Mr. Brown was mentioned briefly in the review. I have already heard from many of Mr. Brown’s friends and loved ones, and I want to apologize for the jolt of pain and anguish my error caused.

Those who knew Don Brown have told me, as one email stated this morning, that he was “a great father, wonderful chef, super person.” Other emails have made similar characterizations.

This error has already been addressed in the online version of the review and will be corrected in the newspaper. I feel terrible about the mistake and will redouble my efforts to make sure errors big or small do not find their way into my work.

And then there was an editor’s note attached to the article:

This story has been edited to remove erroneous information about the late Don Brown, an accomplished chef in Sacramento who worked with Doug Silva at Silva’s Sheldon Inn and previously for many years at Biba. Mr. Brown died Feb. 17, 2010 of a disabling stroke. The Bee regrets the error.

We bet they due regret this error.