The Weight Is Over for Frank Bruni

by Kat Kinsman, Posted Aug 20th 2009 @ 9:30AM

Frank Bruni (left) and interviewer John Berman. Photo: ABC News "Nightline."

Restaurant devotees tuning into Wednesday night's edition of ABC News "Nightline," slavering for juicy tidbits from the upcoming tell-all penned by departing New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni were treated to an intimate portrait of ... uh, the poignant tale of ... OK, the dude wants to sell some books. This was his infomercial.

It's hard to blame the guy. For the past five years, the admitted former bulimic who once sported a 42-inch waistband was the most fear-inducing eater in all of New York's five boroughs, his deft, often hilarious and scathing reviews packing the power to loft or condemn restaurants' fates -- around 270 of them during his tenure at the Times -- despite his intensely conflicted relationship with food and the constant pressure to maintain anonymity by means of unflattering wigs, stick-on facial hair and fake reservation names he'd sometimes forget upon arrival at the host's stand.

In his first network interview since taking on this trencherman's task in 2004, Bruni -- publicly revealing his face on video for the first time to a national audience -- talked about his lifelong battle with overeating and the extreme, often unsuccessful measures he took to combat his epic binges.

Bruni told interviewer John Berman, "During my freshman year of college I threw up a lot of my meals. Whenever I would eat a meal that would get out of hand I would throw it up. I took laxatives. Later on in college and later on out of college I sometimes took amphetamines to try to control my appetite."

He also shared tales of what he takes to be a sort of infantile bulimia saying, "You know, my mother used to always talk about a time when I was 18 months old and I was sitting in a high chair. And she had fed me two good-sized burgers and I threw a tantrum because she wouldn't feed me a third one." In excerpts from his memoir "Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater" -- which arrives in bookstores Thursday -- he goes on to say that he'd forcefully vomit up the first two burgers to make room for the third.

While he never weighed himself, Bruni estimated that at his heaviest, while covering the 2000 presidential campaign as part of the Bush press corps, he probably weighed around 275 pounds -- a good 90 pounds more than he did when he took on the job as the most powerful restaurant critic in the nation. And now after five straight years of multi-course meals six night a week, how is his figure faring?

Says Bruni, "I am ... as healthy as I was in the beginning. No heavier than I was at the beginning. And that suggests to me that I've worked something out in my head and I hope it lasts."

We're guessing the wigs and 'staches will stay off the menu as he takes on his new post as a staff writer for the New York Times Sunday Magazine, starting in October.

See the full interview at ABC News and pre-order "Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater."

Tags: born round, BornRound, frank bruni, FrankBruni, kat kinsman, KatKinsman, new york times, new york times dining, NewYorkTimes, NewYorkTimesDining, restaurant critic, restaurant reviews, RestaurantCritic, RestaurantReviews