Sheraton Responds to Nieporent's Remarks About Critics

In a conversation with Eater at the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen this weekend, restaurateur extraordinaire Drew Nieporent shared his thoughts on the current state of food criticism in New York. Drew remarked: "What's happened with the journals, or specifically one paper, every time they make these switches they don't regard history as being important, so the new critic wipes the slate clean, there's no continuity." He continued: "Recently with Carbone, Adam Platt gave it one star, Pete Wells gave it 3. Wouldn't you be confused? Is there really that big of a disparity?" When chatting about Mimi Sheraton and Gael Greene in the 70s, he also said that, "you sort of had to understand their own idiosyncrasies to understand them."

After reading this interview, Ms. Mimi Sheraton wrote in with a response:

From the desk of Mimi Sheraton:

He could not be more incorrect about inconsistency of standards...Different opinions are what can give a restaurant or the public another chance. It would be terrible if all critics met and agreed on standards and ratings. That has been proposed in the past...So Carbone gets a chance with Wells, 3 to offset the 1, and let the public decide which critic is worth following. Theater, literary and film critics often disagree and so should food critics.

So there you have it, one of New York's legendary food critics thinks that diversity of opinion is a good thing for the New York dining world. Do check out Eater's epic interview with Nieporent for more on his thoughts on the critics, opening restaurants in NYC, and the state of food media in general.
· Drew Nieporent on Critics, the Difficulty of Opening in NYC, and 6 Degrees of Drew [~EN~]
· All Coverage of Drew Nieporent [~ENY~]
· All Coverage of Mimi Sheraton [~ENY~]