That was a fun morning read! Is the Onebox format for NYT links still not working?
Thanks! That was a good read. I’ve always wondered how restaurant reviewers did it (I personally can’t eat an app AND a main AND dessert in one sitting). I’d be the one who had to bring a Hoover,
That’s why I never dine alone 
Here’ what I wrote in the comments. I’ve always wondered about how being a restaurant critic would affect your health.
“Even though I live on the other side of the country and will probably never get to New York, I’ve always enjoyed your thoughts on restaurants. Some of your reviews made me want to jump on a plane to eat there, and some made me feel uncomfortable with the high prices and elitism. Thank you for illuminating them all. I look forward to seeing what you do next and hope that your health returns to normal. Bon voyage!”
The Post’s restaurant reviewer has said that he liked to bring a group so that he can taste one bite of lots of dishes. You’d have to be very disciplined to navigate the job I think
Such a good read, thanks for posting!!
News about his temporary replacements.
Ruth Reichl, a past NYT Restaurant reviewer, wrote a great and funny book about the life of the food critic and all the disguises she came up with. It’s called Garlic and Sapphire.
(https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/16/dining/pete-wells-steps-down-food-critic.html):
This was a super thoughtful goodbye. I was touched by his willingness to address the unhealthiness of the lifestyle, something that many food obsessives me included struggle with. He was a good one and I will miss him
Excellent read and I can identify with it. In the 90s the SF Chronicle published their Top 100 restaurants. I got to like 45 in a year and a half and stopped. The restaurants changed yearly and I just couldn’t keep up. I can not imagine doing that for a living, dining out 4-5 times a week, at a place 3 times….and then writing about it.
For quite a while now, I’ve been wondering how long he’d keep going, because he’d already been at the gig a good many years beyond the tenure of most NYT restaurant critics, and most of them cite health, plus the difficulties of rarely eating at home with their households and so on. I know there are critics at other papers who’ve been at it for ages and ages, but something about the size and scope of the NYC restaurant scene (along with the national and vicarious reach of NYT reviews’ readership) seems to have a more profound effect on its critics.
I agree that was a nice piece.
That’s my kind of “comedy”.
This is the WaPo coverage of Wells’ announcement (gift link, I hope)
There’s an interesting bit in the above link about a Sporkful podcast with Wells that included this:
Pashman: Pete usually practices his own very attentive style of eating five nights a week. He’s always checking out possible places to review. I wondered how going out that often affects your relationship with food.
Wells: Well, I’ll tell you, if you, like, regularly consume 6,000 or 7,000 calories at a single meal, like I do, you’ll find that, the next day, your appetite is kind of moderate. You know? … I’m very often not hungry at all until I sit down, and even then, I’m not really hungry.
Pashman: That feels a little sad, Pete, I have to say.
Really does eliminate some of the romance around the allure of being a critic.
(Cross-posted on FTC.)
His last column as NYT restaurant critic. (gift link)
I really enjoyed that article. IMHO, every single thing he wrote about the experience of eating out now compared to when he began writing restaurant reviews really rings true.
I was out of the US (living in Japan) from 2009 until March of this year and I personally don’t like any of the changes I have experienced since coming back (please don’t attack me for saying that nor ask me to explain what changes I don’t like).
Japan has changed in MANY ways as well. But I lived in the VERY provincial city of Tokushima from 2009 to 2021 where change is NOT well received. It wasn’t until I moved to the MUCH larger city of Shizuoka (exactly halfway between the metropolises of Nagoya and Tokyo) that I experienced the huge push of technology that made eating out much less personal and IMHO, cold.
Of course I wouldn’t attack you. I am always interested in others’ experiences. I am happy to see you here again, you have been quiet lately. I hope all is well.
Hopefully he’s got a thicker skin than @retrospek 
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