How did the job at the Chron come about and why did you decide to take it?
A few months ago, I met up for drinks with Kitty Morgan, the new assistant managing editor for lifestyle, as she was soliciting perspectives from outside media on the Bay Area's food scene. We found ourselves in such agreement that when the Chronicle decided to hire another staff writer, I jumped at the opportunity.
Do you have a brief on your new position as yet?
We haven't settled on specifics. The Chronicle's food section has always worked very closely as a team, so I suspect my duties will change depending on where the need is greatest. But I'll be primarily focusing on food features, with a sideline in hunting down those regional Chinese noodle houses restaurants and little-publicized pop-ups I most love discovering. I'll also be contributing to Inside Scoop as needed.
Do you have a clear sense of what is happening to the Chronicle’s food section?
Too soon for me to answer this one.
Is it a good time to be a food critic here and is there anything challenging about being a food writer in this community?
Writing about food in the Bay Area is pretty much as gratifying as dining in the Bay Area: Given the breadth of the dining scene, the depth of talent, and our collective obsession with food, there are so many stories out there worth writing about. The so-called challenge--that the high-end dining scene is relatively small and rapaciously covered--means that anyone who looks beyond that scrum can see acres of open territory to explore.
What do you make of, if anything, the fact that most of the food critics in the area are men? There's you, John Birdsall at CHOW, Josh Sens at San Francisco, and Luke Tsai at East Bay Express. Even in the Chronicle’s own announcement about your hiring it mentioned you coming on board alongside Michael Bauer, Jon Bonné, Paolo Lucchesi “and the rest of the Chronicle food staff." This in a field--and a newspaper section--that is overwhelmingly female.
I'm not sure why the announcement was worded like that, considering the majority of my coworkers--superstars like Tara Duggan, Stacy Finz and Amanda Gold--are women, as are my bosses all the way up the editorial chain. Your own list omits Anna Roth, Christina Mueller, and Patricia Unterman -- and those are just the critics. I'd agree that straight men are a growing presence in food-writing realms, but the lineup you mention seems more of a historical moment than a movement.
Now, if you wanted to talk about the Caucasian near-monopoly on food writing in the Bay Area, I think we could have a more interesting, and troubling, discussion.
What subjects in food writing are you so over?
So-and-so always loved his/her grandmother's X. After working in corporate accounting for 10 years, he/she decided to follow his/her life's passion. Now he/she makes tiny batches of X with scrupulously sourced ingredients and sells X for $27 an ounce. What really gets me is when the moral of the story is supposed to be that you, O reader, are a more ethical person if you buy X. No, you're not! You're just buying a luxury product with a good story. I fall for the pitch every effing time.
Can you describe your former life as a cook and how it informs your writing?
I worked in restaurants all through college, from dishwasher on up to line cook, and then cooked here for a number of restaurants in the 1990s, aka the era of Tower Food. I was a sous chef at a couple of restaurants that are no longer in business. When I was working as an anonymous restaurant critic, I thanked my years behind the stove every week for training my taste memory--that ability to recall and recreate what you made the night (or week) before. Working in a professional kitchen also taught me to dissect what I was tasting and identify what was right and wrong in terms of seasoning and texture. As I move more into reporting and narrative story-telling, I hope that that experience will be a source of empathy for the people whose stories I'm telling.
What haven’t we seen from you (yet) that may emerge once you settle in at the Chron?
Features! Have I missed writing features, which was a big part of my job at the East Bay Express and Seattle Weekly. My M.O. as a critic is writing about food as an aspect of culture, not just a sensory experience. Searching out peak flavor experiences is a huge part of my M.O., but at the same time, we food writers spend so much time focused on what tastes great that we neglect interesting food stories that don't necessarily result in transcendent meals. Do Vietnamese Cajun crawfish boils, Chinese all-you-can-eat shabu-shabu houses, and food-truck sliders tell us something interesting about how we eat in the Bay Area? I've always thought so.
A visitor to San Francisco wants to know where to eat: What do you suggest and why?
