03.16.10

The passing of the old guard

Posted in food-related musings at 13:55 by Dominique

Time magazine had an article by Josh Ozersky today about why old-fashioned restaurant critics still matter (via @SamSifton). He makes some good points – it is certainly unlikely that just “any girl with a blog and a digital camera” has the experience and the knowledge to usefully opine about food. Plus, Ozersky thinks it’s hard to know people’s tastes if their publishing history isn’t that long. Mainly he laments the vacuum in authority and perspective left by the Wall Street Journal’s dismissal of their longtime critic, Raymond Sokolov.

Obviously, since I write this blog, I don’t think small-scale restaurant reviewing is useless (although sometimes I do wonder what exactly I’m working towards). I’ve only been eating at great restaurants for the last seven years, and I’ve started noticing the nuances of skilled cooking in maybe the last three. My opinion, as a smart, aware, critical person, is still valuable. While we all want to know what experts think, everybody eats. It’s not like art, where most people don’t do it and don’t know much about it. A layperson can actually have something useful to say. And because of the subjective nature of reviewing, I try to cover certain basic points with specificity in every review, as I hope is apparent. Plus, if you want to know exactly where my tastes lie, just see About the Blog or the Guide to Ratings.

Ultimately, while it would be wonderful if we could all afford to eat at terrific restaurants worldwide all the time, I don’t think that’s the only way you can contribute something valid to food culture and knowledge. If you ate somewhere thoughtfully and can describe in detail why you did or did not like the food, I care what you think. And that’s where I hope my reviews fit in.

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