The One Star Chef

“The customer is always right - or are they? Matthew Syed and Ewa Maslowska look into the the story of a unique Italian restaurant and the world of online reviews.”

Abstract

When chef and independent restaurateur Davide Cerretini first opened his restaurant, it was a dream come true. But that dream quickly soured when he came head to head with ever more pushy and demanding customers. And then online reviews came along…

In this story of how one man took on his critics, Matthew Syed examines the role of online reviews - good and bad- in modern consumer culture and delves into whether the customer really is “always right”.

Featuring Davide Cerretini, restaurant critic Jay Rayner, Dr Jo Cohen and Ewa Maslowska. Listen to the podcast here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001rym0

Bio

Ewa earned her Ph.D. in Communication Science from the Persuasive Communication program at the University of Amsterdam. Her dissertation explored how personalized marketing communication influences consumers, taking situational and personal factors into account. She completed a postdoc in the Medill IMC Spiegel Digital & Database Research Center at Northwestern University, after which she became an Assistant Professor in the Amsterdam School of Communication Research. Ewa has been published in International Journal of Advertising, Computers in Human Behavior, Journal of Marketing Management, Decision Support Systems, and others. She is on the Editorial Review Boards of the International Journal of Advertising and the Journal of Interactive Advertising.

Ewa’s research centers around marketing communication and consumer behavior, specifically consumer-brand interactions in the context of new technologies. Her current research and teaching interests include personalized advertising, brand engagement, social media advertising, eWOM, consumer decision making, digital analytics and computational advertising. In her research she often takes a data-driven approach to investigate the effectiveness of marketing communications and the relations between various forms of consumer engagement and purchase behaviors. Trained as a psychologist and communication scientist, she also applies experimental and psychophysiological research methods. Her focus is on conducting research that advances theory, but also produces actionable insights.