"food critics" news and stories

There's a new breed of food snob that revels in one-upmanship, on getting a reservation at the newest "temple of gastronomy" and then blathering on about it on Twitter; of ordering the most expensive wine on the list, not because it's exquisite but so it can be bragged about. This money-flashing, fast-talking breed is the gastrocrat, says Josh Ozersky, in his recent column for Time, and he's damn sick of it.

Ozersky, former Slashfood writer, and author of The Hamburger, A History, was prompted by a Craigslist offering of a reservation at the new Grant Achatz place, Next, for $3,000. Says Ozersky, "It's clear to me now. It's gotten out of hand."

Read more about Ozersky's blame game against the gastrocrats at Time.com.

• A new twist on the classic banana cake.
• We told you last week about Alison Arnett leaving the Globe. Here's a look at her favorite restaurants and an essay on what it's like to be a food critic.
• PBS will profile 27 chefs in a new show.
• A lawyer quits her job and now makes gluten-free desserts.
• Harvard is going to Pete & Gerry's Organic Eggs.
• This week's recipes: Individual Pizzas, Granola, Chicken Adobo, Pink and Brown Parfait, and Chocolate Chip Cookies.

If you're a restaurateur in New York City, or even in the surrounding metropolitan area, or heck, anywhere in the United States, you might want to be on the lookout for this man. He looks a little bit like Ray Liotta, doesn't he? It is Frank Bruni, the dining critic for the New York Times, and many restaurants have "Wanted" posters in their kitchens and staff rooms instructing their employees to look out for him. If he shows up - it requires special attention.

According to this particular listing about Monsieur Bruni, "he looks very young, his guests are very often female, he is extremely polite with staff," and his "questions about food are asked in a very casual, unassuming manner."

Gee, that is so very helpful. Aside from his being polite with staff, it sounds like it could be just about anybody in the dining room.

If you follow the New York restaurant and dining scene at all, then the name Gael Greene is familiar. Gael Greene spent thirty-two years writing a column for New York magazine entitled "The Insatiable Critic." Though she was writing restaurant reviews, her columns revealed her life as a social diva, who ended up in bed with the likes of Elvis Presley as well as chefs of notable New York restaurants.

Gael Greene has a new book, Insatiable: Tales from a Life of Delicious Excess, which is a memoir of those days and nights. Nerve.com has done an interview with the writer in which they ask such questions as "Do you think there's a connection between the physical experiences of eating and sex?" and "Do you have any suggestions for in-the-bedroom treats?" all of which she answers very straight-forwardly.

Sometimes restaurant reviews seem to skew towards the negative - so why bother reading them when you can get the gist from the headline? The Seattle Post Intelligencer critic stepped up to try and answer that very question this week. The headlines are only a glimpse of what the review was about and a half dozen words, except in very rare cases, is hardly capable of conveying the full experience that a review offers. Another potentially misleading element of a review is the number of stars or the numerical rating it received. A subjectively determined numerical value will give you even less information than the headline alone because you can't get a sense of the criteria used to justify the rating.

Newspapers tend to review new restaurants, which are more likely to be hit-or-miss on any given day during their infancy than a meal at a long lasting neighborhood favorite. Their kitchen might not be fully synched or perhaps they haven't settled on a menu of their best dishes. Time can change a restaurant for better or worse, and an early review may not tell the whole story.