Garlic and Sapphires, by Ruth Reichl, is a fun and easy read, the perfect commuter or airplane book. She talks about all the funny disguises she went through as the NY Times Food critic and each one is paired with a restaurant review. I went through the book thinking, if only I had been reading her reviews, I could have saved myself the anguish of dining at Sparks, or perhaps I would have gone to Daniel years earlier.
Each time I put the book down, I spent time, sometimes subconsciously, thinking about the similarities and differences between being a NY Times Food Critic and a food blogger. After all, I announced my desire to be a food critic at the age of 6.
So Garlic and Sapphires is all about the adventures Ruth experiences as different people. She placed understandable importance over anonymity. As a food blogger, photos are a big part of what my viewers expect. Assuming that I was ever recognizable, how would I hide my camera (and still get the photos)? Ultimately, I don’t think the restaurant can do much to change their food. If they recognize that they are being reviewed, they can put their best foot forward but the chef will not suddenly become more talented and the ingredients they have will not get better. Service may very well become more attentive, but servers do not suddenly become more knowledgeable.
Next, Ruth explained that she visited each restaurant at least 3 times before reviewing it. Of course I’m envious, especially to be able to enjoy 3 meals at some fabulously expensive places. Plus, the meals are all paid for! But, the most significant difference is the opportunity to do a really thorough review, detect inconsistencies and rare occurrences. Since we only go to most places once, my experience may be a fluke, good or bad, and I have to just hope my audience understands that.
Towards the end of the book, Ruth discusses her feelings about why she wanted to move on. She missed cooking. That really hit the spot for me and made me realize how amazing it is to be a food blogger. I have the opportunity to alternate between dining out days and cooking days, days where I review products, and days where I just sit and think, and hopefully be able to put it into words.
While there are some significant differences between traditional food critic and food blogger, I’m already living my dream, so thank you for reading.
Filed under Celebrities. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
I read that book, it was light reading but the premise did feel a little stretched out for the book. An NYT food critic vs the food blogger is kind of similar to reporters vs citizen journalist. While one may give you a title that brings with it some perks, ultimately its the quality of your work that will decide the outcome. Like you said, you are already living your dream, that in itself makes it all worthwile! 🙂 And who knows, free meals may be in the future with all the readers you are accumalating.
Those are such interesting thought abt the differences bwn food bloggers and food critics! I’ve always envied the “luxurious” foodie lives of critics…but now I’m just glad to be a regular ol’ food blogger…I doubt it may be as fun and stress-relieving if you had to do food-critiquing as your career!
I love the disguised pic! I’m adding this book to my reading list; I love a good book recommendation given my current professional nerd status. I think I would miss cooking if I had to eat out too much, and I have to say, after a number of years of exclusively cooking because the restaurants out here are horrible, I have an appreciation for depending on myself to nourish myself (I hope that makes sense). This doesn’t stop me from trying new places or frequenting places that give me a break from cooking, but blogging has become my outlet and reading great blogs (yours is my absolute favorite, by the way–I try to spread the word as much as possible) makes it even more clear to me that food=happiness.
Thanks for all your hard work, Jess and Lon–you two deserve some serious kudos!!
It was weird to start writing reviews, actually. The newspaper doesn’t pay me enough to go more than once (I probably actually lose money every time I write a review), which made me feel like I was blogging, but sometimes I’d go a few times on my own dime to make sure I was being fair. I still feel kind of torn about it.
Ruth Reichl is my all-time favorite food writer. G&S is easily the best of her four memoirs, although I recommend them all.
http://gastronomyblog.com/2007/02/01/garlic-and-sapphires-ruth-reichl/
Manasi, we have gotten some free meals which is nice (and always disclosed in the post) but that doesn’t pay the bills.
Sophia, I’m trying hard to make this my career and it’s getting there. There is added pressure but I still love every minute of it.
EMC, as always, I really appreciate your support.
Soopling, that really stinks!
Gastronomer, beautiful looking blog. Love the sausages!
You should link to her book through foodmayhem market.
I am really looking forward to reading this. I LOVE LOVE LOVED Comfort Me with Apples, and now I’m reading Tender to the Bone.
Do you believe that a movie is in the works for “Garlic and Sapphires”? Who are they going to cast as Ruth? They’re saying a 2010 release. Your restaurant reviews are excellent, even though I live in Dallas, I enjoy them! Probably because that’s what I would love to be doing myself. I would like to include your blog on a post for foodies that I will publish in the near future. OK? You can contact me on Twitter at @jai55. Ciao!