#food-criticism

#food-criticism

just before we collectively stumbled into this shitty timeline marred by "fake news" and idiot fascism, a journalist did that thing that journalism used to do: hold power to account. In this case, the power was Big Bay Leaf, and the reporter was Kelly Conaboy, writing for the Awl on a "vast bay leaf conspiracy" that-then as now-cons well-meaning home cooks into buying weird leaves that taste and smell like "nothing."

I come from a restaurant family. My grandparents opened Henry's Hunan-the only Hunanese restaurant in the city at the time. Chinese food in San Francisco was largely American Chinese or Cantonese-inflected, so it was unusual to have this different region represented. I spent childhood Saturdays at the restaurant, making Shirley Temples, and helping seat people. I waited tables in college but never saw a career in the restaurant industry. I then worked in documentary film for many years.

Bourdain criticized Paula Deen for promoting unhealthy food while claiming to represent traditional Southern gastronomy, insisting her recipes undermined authentic Southern cuisine.

As a food critic, the constant evaluation of dining experiences can sometimes overshadow the simple pleasure of enjoying a meal, leading to a complicated relationship with food.

N!CK's version of cookie dough ice cream sank to the bottom of the ranking for its lack of flavor and dry, rubbery cookie dough pieces.

"Looking back, Fields, a surfer and former bartender whose path to barbecue began with a Berkeley cooking class, calls the experience a 'funny little thing.'"

Bourdain referred to Guy Fieri's American Kitchen and Bar in Times Square as a "terror dome," criticizing its scale, high prices, and gimmicky offerings.