Bruni and Beyond: NYC Reviewing (2007)

[Nathan]

you'd be surprised how many veteran writers in every department at the Times (and every other major newspaper) are freelancers.

[Jesikka]

"As for the reviewer's dining companions, it's not quite the gravy train you might picture. I'm sure his companions appreciate being taken along, but everybody at the table gets drafted into helping the critic do his job. Eating with a critic isn't like eating with a civilian: you have to order whatever he wants to try, and if you happen to get an appetizer or entree you really like, too bad — after one or two bites you have to pass your plate over so the critic can have a taste. And then it gets passed to the next person, so that delicious lobster salad you loved so much will be gone before you know it. I've gone along with Frank Bruni on his rounds a few times and while he's as gracious as anyone could be, I still feel cheated about passing a good plate of food to somebody else. And if there's one dish on the table that absolutely everybody hates? That will be the one that I end up with when the passing stops. It's like musical chairs, but with overcooked lamb. "

Gee, I really feel for the poor dining companions who are going out on the dime of the NY Times. They don't get to eat every bite of the food they order. It's almost like...dining with my friends. Are these answers for real? Also, shouldn't you want someone with the expertise of a NY Times food critic choosing the dishes?

[larrylee]

Gee, I really feel for the poor dining companions who are going out on the dime of the NY Times.  They don't get to eat every bite of the food they order.  It's almost like...dining with my friends.  Are these answers for real?  Also, shouldn't you want someone with the expertise of a NY Times food critic choosing the dishes?

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I think that depends on who you're accustomed to dining with. You know, the person who wants to order dessert first, doesn't want half the items that come in the fish dish, etc.

[Nathan]

"As for the reviewer's dining companions, it's not quite the gravy train you might picture. I'm sure his companions appreciate being taken along, but everybody at the table gets drafted into helping the critic do his job. Eating with a critic isn't like eating with a civilian: you have to order whatever he wants to try, and if you happen to get an appetizer or entree you really like, too bad — after one or two bites you have to pass your plate over so the critic can have a taste. And then it gets passed to the next person, so that delicious lobster salad you loved so much will be gone before you know it. I've gone along with Frank Bruni on his rounds a few times and while he's as gracious as anyone could be, I still feel cheated about passing a good plate of food to somebody else. And if there's one dish on the table that absolutely everybody hates? That will be the one that I end up with when the passing stops. It's like musical chairs, but with overcooked lamb. "

Gee, I really feel for the poor dining companions who are going out on the dime of the NY Times.  They don't get to eat every bite of the food they order.  It's almost like...dining with my friends.  Are these answers for real?  Also, shouldn't you want someone with the expertise of a NY Times food critic choosing the dishes?

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not necessarily, because part of his/her job is to order dishes that don't look interesting. and I do get protective about giving away more than a bite or two of my entrees....I could see how it gets old.

[Jesikka]

not necessarily, because part of his/her job is to order dishes that don't look interesting.  and I do get protective about giving away more than a bite or two of my entrees....I could see how it gets old.

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Maybe it's just that I have a pretty small appetite, so I'm accustomed to giving up my food after a few bites. I can only think of a few instances where I've really not wanted to share my food, but if I were getting it for free I doubt I'd be complaining.

I'd assume that part of dining with a food critic is a willingness to eat anything, no? I can't really imagine Frank dines with a bunch of people who ask for dressing on the side and no bread.

Maybe you guys see it, but I'm just not really feeling the pain of being a friend of the reviewer.

[larrylee]

I think I can speak for us both in saying that neither of us (nor you) would mind going to dinner with Frank Bruni. We're just responding to the idea that some people may very well not like to.

Edited July 26, 2007 by larrylee (log)

[Nathan]

yup. I could see how for some it could "get old"

[Jesikka]

I think I can speak for us both in saying that neither of us (nor you) would mind going to dinner with Frank Bruni. We're just responding to the idea that some people may very well not like to.

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No, I can definitely see how going to dinner with *Frank Bruni* could get old. I mean, the guy is a pretty picky eater from what I can tell.

[Leonard Kim]

There was some question upthread as to how many visits went into one of Bruni's reviews. Enlisted to help answer a question on how restaurants get chosen for review, Bruni says,

the newspaper's Dining section only reviews restaurants after a critic makes multiple visits — typically three at the minimum

[Fat Guy]

That language of course leaves open the possibility of reviews based on two visits.

[Nathan]

that implies he had to return to Ninja at least once...ya gotta feel for him....

I could see how a couple restaurants only need two visits: Max Brenner, Ninja, Katz's...but I would hope that the vast majority of the time he visits at least three times.

[oakapple]

Eater reported yesterday that Danyelle Freeman, a/k/a/ the Restaurant Girl will become restaurant critic for the New York Daily News. She replaces Pascale Le Draoulec, who had "retired" quite a while ago. Freeman's reviews will employ the traditional zero-to-four star rating scale, and will appear on Tuesdays, starting a week from today. As far as I know, Freeman is the first person to make the jump from hobbyist food blogger to a paid critic's job at a newspaper, so congratulations to her.

Obviously there are many questions about how she'll handle this transition. Her blog was well known for seldom saying negative things about restaurants. She clearly was cozy with a number of chefs, and some of her meals were obviously comped. How will she adjust? Or, will her Daily News column be just like her blog entries, only with stars attached?

Edited August 14, 2007 by oakapple (log)

[docsconz]

Eater reported yesterday that Danyelle Freeman, a/k/a/ the Restaurant Girl will become restaurant critic for the New York Daily News. She replaces Pascale Le Draoulec, who had "retired" quite a while ago. Freeman's reviews will employ the traditional zero-to-four star rating scale, and will appear on Tuesdays, starting a week from today. As far as I know, Freeman is the first person to make the jump from hobbyist food blogger to a paid critic's job at a newspaper, so congratulations to her.

Obviously there are many questions about how she'll handle this transition. Her blog was well known for seldom saying negative things about restaurants. She clearly was cozy with a number of chefs, and some of her meals were obviously comped. How will she adjust? Or, will her Daily News column be just like her blog entries, only with stars attached?

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If the daily News is picking up her tab, comps shouldn't be an issue. It remains to be seen how the other elements will play out.

[Nathan]

miracles can happen...but I tend to think that:

a. once a shill, always a shill.

b. her food knowledge is such that it makes Bruni look like a culinary polymath. that's scary.

[Fat Guy]

Writing serviceable restaurant reviews is just not all that hard. I'm sure she's up to the task and can do it in whatever manner her new client requests. I've looked at her blog on several occasions and think she displays demonstrable food knowledge and breadth of experience (I doubt that, in some sort of controlled test matchup, Bruni on day one could keep pace with Restaurant Girl on day one), is a good (not a great) writer and, while she emphasizes the positive, that hardly makes her a shill -- that's just standard practice for plenty of outlets where the mission is to promote what's good rather than engage in criticism in the style of a newspaper. There are negative comments throughout her writings, so she is not undiscriminating. People transition from style to style all the time -- that's what freelance writers do. You look at someone like David Rosengarten, and you can see how he has transitioned effortlessly throughout his career from popular TV stuff to upbeat newsletter and blog-type writing to serious criticism for Gourmet. While I'm not aware of another steady, weekly (as opposed to occasional, of which I could cite several examples) newspaper restaurant reviewing spot going to someone who got started as a blogger (not that I have any clue what's going on in most of the country), there are countless examples of amateur bloggers making the jump to professional writing of all kinds and the New York Daily News restaurant reviewing position is hardly the most impressive of those jumps. Every high-quality food-related publication I know of has carried articles by writers who got their starts as amateur bloggers, and there's no indication that people who got their starts that way are delivering inferior work product in any regard.

[oakapple]

miracles can happen...but I tend to think that:

a. once a shill, always a shill.

I think you over-state the shill quota in her writing. Yes, she was sometimes comped—so are a lot of people. But she was not incapable of dropping the hammer, though she seldom did so.

b. her food knowledge is such that it makes Bruni look like a culinary polymath.  that's scary.

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RG has never had (and still won't have) Bruni's six-figure dining budget. I agree with FG that RG on Day One will probably come into the job with more knowledge than Bruni did.

[Fat Guy]

The Eater piece also notes that Restaurant Girl "once wrote a weekly column for the Daily News on fashion and trends called 'Fashion Compass.'" So, it seems she has at least some newspaper writing background and, for all I know, it may even predate her blog.

Also, the Village Voice rings in with a predictable caterwaul about how she's easily recognizable and therefore not likely to be anonymous.

[Nathan]

A. she explicitly never wrote negative reviews until last October. she announced it in a post at the time. (not that she started writing them...like A.S....her negative reviews all seem to involve her not getting recognized)

B. yes, she's a shill. like A.S. she relies upon press releases and comps. go back over her archives...its pretty bad.

C. go back over her archives...her food knowledge (and her poor writing..) speak for themselves. unlike Bruni, she walks in with a track record.

D. she stated yesterday that she intended to "review" restaurants as a an explicitly recognized reviewer. we know for a fact that Bruni isn't recognized a lot (almost certainly the majority) of the time.

I find this damning. all of it.

Edited August 14, 2007 by Nathan (log)

[Nathan]

of course, so long as she has an editor catching things like this:

http://www.restaurantgirl.com/restaurantgi...ll_country.html

it has to be an improvement!

[Fat Guy]

I find this damning.

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I find it neither damning nor even persuasive. Her poor food knowledge and bad writing aren't evident to me -- she seems fine on both counts. Accepting invitations to press meals, etc., just makes you a member of the food media. You're only a shill if you think something sucks but you write that it's great. There's no evidence that she does that. I'm not a big Restaurant Girl fan or anything, but I find your vitriol incomprehensible.

[Nathan]

for her writing...see the piece I linked too above from just a couple months ago:

"an ambitious Jew from nowhere near the Lone Star state (Maryland),"

???????????????

"kicked up a notch"??? the "welcome wagon"????

this is painfully amateurish.

as for the shill part....as with A.S. I simply refuse to believe that she has always had great food....except when she wasn't comped or recognized.

she's a walking restaurant publicist and has been seen that way in the industry for years.

edit: I know she has a large fan club....but I don't think it's for culinary reasons...

edit2: seriously, "an ambitious Jew"?

Edited August 14, 2007 by Nathan (log)

[Nathan]

and for what it's worth...based upon the comments on Eater and elsewhere....I'm hardly alone in my opinion....

[Jesikka]

and for what it's worth...based upon the comments on Eater and elsewhere....I'm hardly alone in my opinion....

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I'm of two minds on this one.

On one hand, I'm happy to join Nathan in vocalizing my longstanding hatred of RestaurantGirl, her reviews and everything she stands for as a blogger and "food critic." The idea that her biased, poorly written and largely uninteresting reviews are being even slightly legitimized makes me feel ill. There are so many amazing food bloggers out there (Clotilde, for example), it seems sad that a very notable move from blogging to mainstream media is being made by a woman with so little culinary knowledge and even less journalistic ethic. I realize that you don't have the same ethical obligations to your readers as a blogger that you have as a mainstream but critic, but she's going to have a lot to prove to me before I begin to believe that her opinions a) matter and b) reflect her actual taste. Frankly, I'm a little convinced that Andrea Strong ACTUALLY loves every restaurant she goes to, whereas I'm merely convinced that Danyelle Freeman loves herself (and long walks on the beach, making jewelry, and the SundayStyles section featuring her unsupportable opinions). "Read me, read me" obviously works in this town (when coupled with strategically angled photos).

On the other hand, she is now the food critic for the DAILY NEWS. Should we really all be taking it so seriously? I for one couldn't have told you the food critic for the Daily News was prior to this if my life depended on it. Maybe that makes me ignorant, but I doubt it. I'd be more concerned if she were freelancing for the Times. Then again, Sietsema turned a newsletter into a lifelong career with the Voice. Only time will tell where RestaurantGirl ends up (Is she cute enough to be Jeffrey Steingarten's assistant? Will Top Chef need another judge?) but I sincerely doubt it will be as a serious food writer.

[oakapple]

and for what it's worth...based upon the comments on Eater and elsewhere....I'm hardly alone in my opinion....

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I interpreted Eater's reaction as "Wait and see," while your reaction is "I've already seen enough." I'm more in Eater's camp.

Now, I don't want you to take this too personally, but as a neutral reader, my take is that her food/restaurant knowledge is about comparable to yours. That's partly because she knows more than you give her credit for, and partly because you know a little less than you imagine.

On the other hand, you don't have, nor have you sought, a paid professional critic's job. In that capacity, she needs to be a lot better than the typical eGullet Society contributor—that is, a lot better than you or me. So she still has a lot to prove.

[Nathan]

and for what it's worth...based upon the comments on Eater and elsewhere....I'm hardly alone in my opinion....

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I interpreted Eater's reaction as "Wait and see," while your reaction is "I've already seen enough." I'm more in Eater's camp.

Now, I don't want you to take this too personally, but as a neutral reader, my take is that her food/restaurant knowledge is about comparable to yours. That's partly because she knows more than you give her credit for, and partly because you know a little less than you imagine.

On the other hand, you don't have, nor have you sought, a paid professional critic's job. In that capacity, she needs to be a lot better than the typical eGullet Society contributor—that is, a lot better than you or me. So she still has a lot to prove.

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not Eater's comments...the comments on Eater.....and....in other forums....run about 95% negative.

I'm neither a food blogger nor a paid food critic...so my culinary knowledge or lack of it is simply irrelevant.