Michael Bauer, the San Francisco Chronicle's food and wine editor, as well as their restaurant critic, has just launched a blog, following in the footsteps of the New York Times' Frank Bruni and his blog. Bauer's blog is called Between Meals and has been up and running for about 1 week now. So far, he has included a list of the ten noisiest restaurants in the Bay Area (Town Hall and A16 are the worst offenders), following up on posts about the rising noise levels in eateries. The best part of the blog, though, is the FAQ, where Bauer answers reader-submitted questions about his life, the review process and about what makes him qualified to be a restaurant critic.

Will other critics soon jump on the blogging bandwagon?

Imagine that you are considering dining at a restaurant you have never been to before. If all your friends like it and the professional critics like it, chances are reasonably good that so will you. When it comes down to it, though, your friends are not professional food critics. Whose advice do you place more weight on -- the friend's or the word of the person who gets paid to eat?

It is a difficult decision, because most people are inclined to trust the professional, the expert. As Sarah alluded to earlier, Jeffrey Steingarten said that he felt obligated to let go of his personal food preferences and hang-ups when he became a food critic. In order to see things from his perspective, to take from his reviews what he does, do we have to let go of our food preferences? Of course not. Everyone likes different things. The question is really why you would choose to take the "professional" recommendation. Their palate is likely to be different from your own, so why should it be a reliable source of advice for you?