America dines out with the Zagats

Talk about coming up with the right concept at the right time.

Tim and Nina Zagat, who founded the now-famous Zagat guides over dinner with friends one evening in 1979, had no idea they'd be publishing those handy, pocket-sized paperbacks during a restaurant revolution. Today, as more people than ever eat out, the diversity of cuisines is exploding, and chefs are celebrities, those burgundy-colored Zagat guides are a hot item. They are to American restaurateurs what the emerald-green Michelin guides have long been to tourists in Europe.

It's no wonder these former lawyers who turned their hobby into a successful enterprise have recently branched out, launching guides to hotels, nightlife, movies, music, shopping, family travel, spas, and golf courses. But the restaurant guides – which are written by and for consumers with a 30-point rating system in the categories of food, décor, service, and cost – remain the Zagats' best-known product and perhaps also, their favorite "firstborn."

Who better to ask about trends in today's exciting culinary world?

On a recent spring day in Boston, a Monitor reporter-and-photographer team took shelter from torrential rain with the Zagats at Bin 26 Enoteca, one of the top-rated "newcomer" restaurants in their latest Boston guide. The couple was in town from New York to launch the Boston guide, the first in the US to be unveiled with a revised, more user-friendly format. While Tim tackled his Hangar Steak "Tagliata" and Nina nibbled on her Grilled Vegetables With Roasted Mozzarella, they shared their keen trend-spotting insights.

"Italian food is as popular as ever," says Tim, "but who knew, 10 years ago, anything about sushi or soba bars?" Japanese cuisine has soared in popularity, he adds, explaining that this year it took the fourth spot in their poll, with 11 percent of Americans citing Japanese as their favorite cuisine, just behind the 14 percent who declared French as their favorite. (Italian took first with 27 percent and American tied with French at 14 percent.)

Other Asian cuisines, especially Thai, Vietnamese, and those of lesser-known regions of China, such as Mongolian cooking, have also gained popularity in recent years, he says, adding that the more familiar, or "regular" Chinese food, has gotten worse – at least in US restaurants.

It's another story in China, where the food in those well-known regions is better than ever, say the Zagats, who travel abroad six to eight times per year. Shanghai and Beijing are two of their favorite foreign cities. "There's been the most amazing transformation in Shanghai, especially," says Nina. Other places they love to visit are London, Paris, Milan, and the Parma region of Italy.

America's melting-pot cuisine

Living in New York, a city with its endless variety in ethnic cuisines, they often feel as though they can travel just by walking down the street. This isn't anything new in the Big Apple. But now smaller US cities are also bursting with culinary diversity. These days, in almost any American city, one might find a burger joint, a Spanish tapas bar, a French-Cambodian cafe, an Italian trattoria, and a Mexican taqueria all in the same neighborhood.

"The quality and diversity of cuisine in American cities is astonishing," says Tim. For example, he adds, when they published their first Boston guide 18 years ago, there were about 20 different types of cuisine available; today, there are 80. In that first guide, surveyors rated and reviewed 400 restaurants; this year that number is close to 1,700.

More people eat away from home

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