Jeffrey Steingarten Calls Brooklyn Food Writers 'Dangerous'

Grub Street runs a monster New York Diet today with Vogue critic Jeffrey Steingarten. And boy does he have some opinions! He discusses the issues of paying one's own way as a food writer, the brain-dead Health Department, the problems with Californians, and his hatred of people who idolize Di Fara. Also interesting are his thoughts about major food writers who live in Brooklyn:

I find it a very dangerous thing to be a Brooklyn booster. It's dangerous for friends of mine who work for the New York Times - I’m not naming any names - but the food editor for the magazine, who is one of our best food writers, and the restaurant reviewer of the newspaper all live in Brooklyn, and they are relatively uncritical of things in Brooklyn the way that sometimes - but not often - Frank Bruni became a little uncritical about things on the Upper West Side.

He seems to be referring to Christine Muhlke and Sam Sifton, (though we're fairly certain Muhlke lives in Manhattan and is just a BK fan), but Pete Wells and other Timesmen are Brooklynites as are big name food writers like Kate Krader, Andrew Knowlton, Ligaya Mishan, and of course Josh Ozersky. This seems like a good one for the commenters. Brooklyn restaurants are unduly celebrated due to Brooklyn food writer bias. Yea or Nay?
· Jeffrey Steingarten Cooks Goat Sous-Vide, Disdains Brooklyn Boosterism [GS]
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