Too <i> Haute</i> to Handle

How unfortunate that Ochoa wrote the puff piece “Hot Cuisine--Who Turned Off the Heat?” while Reichl wrote the sidebar, “The Lost Art of the Meal.”

Maybe if Ochoa had bothered to eat at the restaurants she mentions rather than just interviewing their owners, she might have discovered the ridiculousness of Bob Spivak’s comment that his Daily Grill is “exactly what people are looking for in the ‘90s.”

I went to the Daily Grill near Beverly Center last year and found the service indifferent and the prices excessive.

What’s really killing L.A. restaurants is an attitude problem. It’s too bad that The Times’ restaurant critics haven’t noticed.

ROBERT McMILLIN

Garden Grove