- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Read other letters about this article
As a professional food writer for nearly 12 years, I can indeed relate to some of the things Ms. Bauer talks about. Yet, since graduating from journalism school, I have been writing about food (in San Francisco) for a living and I still love writing about food each and every day. I am now the editor of two newspapers, but what it really comes down to is that I still love to write, and I also love to eat. I grew up with a Sicilian grandfather who loved food for all the right reasons. None of my grandfather's life lessons sound even remotely like Ms. Bauer's experiences with food, so perhaps she was not fortunate enough to learn to appreciate food through the eyes of someone like my grandfather who loved to eat but also understood that he ate to live. There was nothing fancy about his cooking -- a basket of fried smelts or a bowl of aglio e olio -- but I've rarely eaten anything as satisfying. I would like to think that when I write my restaurant reviews, food features and chef profiles, I write with a sense of whimsy, curiosity, and a large dose of passion --- all the things my grandfather taught me about food and all the things my favorite cooks (not just "chefs") have in common. Without passion, all the fancy linens, farmers' market heirloom tomatoes, top culinary school training and $20 glasses of Pinot can't make a meal memorable.
As for Ms. Harri Covert, you try far too hard to be engaging and simply come across as immature, inexperienced, catty and jealous. Pinot has been "passe for ages"? Really? Did you mean to say Merlot? As someone who eats out for a living six nights a week, I can tell you it still dominates the wine lists of SF's top restaurants and is still the number one selling glass of red wine. (And a little film you may have heard of last year called "Sideways" has made it more popular than ever). I assume when you say you are a "food writer" that you are not a published one. Ms. Bauer, on the other hand, has some chops, even if she is bored with writing about food. So Ann, if you want to write those thought-provoking pieces that your former publication turned down, give me a call.
