My food and my dream

When a food review comes to mind, you probably think of somebody leaving a nice note, or a hatred note, on a restaurant’s review page. But that’s not what I do.

Hello, my name is Griffin Hunter Harbaugh. I have been a Stagline staff writer this first semester. Today though, I am submitting this student voice article to talk about my aspirations to be a food critic. I have two Instagram accounts; one is a personal account, where I interact with my friends, and a second account is dedicated to reviews of food from all across the world.

So far I have made six review posts on my account. Three of them are from Spain, including in Barcelona and Madrid where I reviewed a cheese burger, a pizza slice, and ice cream. One of the posts was from my house, where I reviewed a ribeye – spoiler: it was really good. The other two were from local restaurants, one reviewing a smash burger and a salad, the other seared scallops.

My favorite review posts come from my time in Spain. I gotta go with my first post when I went to this little place right by the hotel called Goiko; I can still taste it every time I think about it. I had the beast burger, which had three beef patties on it along with bacon bits and cheese.

Senior Bo Schilling has checked out my food review account and says it looks good. But he asked my friend Alex Prieto, who assisted me in talking to fellow students for this article, about “how he rates it, like is there a format?” Sophomore Trae Wines speculated to Alex that there is isn’t a template to the reviews, “maybe more of some days he rates it based off of how he feels.”

The truth? My family and I watch this show called Hell’s Kitchen, one of Gordon Ramsey’s many food entertainment programs. In every challenge, he rates the food based off of the presentation, the taste, and how well it is cooked. I judge the foods I try based on those same criteria. The foods I have rated have ranged from as high as 9.87 to as low as 8.7. The average food rating is 9.4, which will likely change as I review more foods.

One of my short-term goals as I work toward my dream is to create a food review club here at DeMatha. Some of my friends, like sophomore Dominic Calabrese, have reached out to me about it. Dominic said if I start the club, he would “definitely join.” Fellow sophomore Blake Wentworth and freshman Jackson Young agree they would like to see a food review club at DeMatha and would like it if I was the one to start it.

Now, how would I actually start the club? I would first have to fill out the DeMatha Club Proposal, then I would see where we could meet and when. My ideal setup would be for me to gather restaurant options for the club, have members vote on where they’d like to order from, and then find a place to meet, eat the food, and post their reviews on a club Instagram account.

I started to think about making a food review account when I was in Spain. My brother mentioned the idea to me when we both saw how good the food looked when we first got there. He told me I should start one, I thought about it the whole time we ate dinner. I decided to set one up and started to review.

I have seen comments on my food review posts ranging from a simple “Yum” to another user saying “I will definitely try it Griff.”  I have plans to start the club by next year, if not sooner. I’ll have to plan around the upcoming baseball season.

If you would want the club to form or are interested and want to join it when it form, you can reach out to me directly through my food review Instagram account, griffeyfoodjr.2341 or through email via [email protected]. I hope to see you at the club’s first meeting in the near future.