At Bar School we were made to listen to recordings of ourselves failing.
No praise. No participation trophies. Just a room full of people explaining what needed fixing.
It steels you. It was also one of the most useful things I’ve ever done. There is good reason, supported by research, why that approach not only works but often prepares people better for success.
Years later, I found myself thinking about that while eating dinner at The Devonshire, one of London’s most celebrated restaurants and arguably the city’s most talked-about pub.
Not because The Devonshire is bad. Far from it.
But because I increasingly wonder what happens when a restaurant is praised so enthusiastically, and for so long, that criticism starts to feel impolite.
Does consensus eventually become truth?
Do we stop assessing a restaurant on its own merits and instead inherit the judgement of everyone who came before us?
My latest London restaurant review is now live on Substack.
