The other day, I had dinner with David Chang. Okay, okay, so a friend and I were sitting at the bar of a restaurant, and David sauntered in and sat next to us. After taking a few dorky pictures, we started chatting. (That’s the same thing as having dinner together, right?)

What I find so fascinating about Chang is his balls-out, "I don't give a fuck” attitude on just about everything. He'll say what he thinks, he doesn't care what you think, and he is pretty darned frustrated with the stupidity that has infiltrated much of the high-end food world.

You can imagine how much respect I have for a chef who is frustrated by stupidity.  I was at one point wondering if we were seperated at birth.

Take PR, for example. During our conversation, David erupted in a diatribe about all the publicists who have swooned over him (likely everyone in New York, since he is a commodity). As he tells it, they’re all the same, prattling on about pitching stories and crafting messages. He has no patience for their old-school PR nonsense and kicks it straight into hard-ass mode, grilling prospective publicists mainly to see if they have a backbone and grit. He hasn't found one, it seems, who has either.

Compare that to some other folks I have spoken with in the past couple of weeks, conversations that went something like this:

"Yeah, OK, I think I've got what RIA does, but will you come to my opening night?"

"Hum... What for?"

"We'll, I mean I would want you to be there."

"What would I do?"

"Well, you'd be there. I mean don't you want to?"

"How will that help your business?"

"I don't know, it would make me feel better."

As I explained in yesterday’s post, publicists shouldn't be around to make people feel better. Parents, shrinks, sycophants, groupies, foodies, cheerleaders and significant others should do that. Not publicists.

The role of a publicist is to help restaurants and chefs obsess like zealots on the work that makes them interesting and appealing — and, yes, to then package that work so the media can make it news. I’m not here for razzle-dazzle, to wipe your nose, or to tell you everything’s going to be okay when it’s not. I’m here to help you get the most from your very best efforts.

Don’t believe me? Ask David Change what he thinks.