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Everyone likes a free meal, and bloggers are especially adept at schnorring them from restaurants who hope for good publicity in return. But no one does it with quite the audacity of the Amateur Gourmet, the world-class mooch whose Wellfed food-blog award we recently lauded. In a new post on Serious Eats, the Gourmet treats us to an especially shocking dose of his trademark hubris.

He describes a meal at Le Cirque — a follow-up to his last experience, which resulted in none other than “Only a Jerk Would Eat at Le Cirque,” a blistering post that caused Sirio Maccioni to write the blogger’s mother a letter of apology for her subpar appetizer. After a long discussion on the power and sway of food bloggers, the Gourmet slams Le Cirque again, sniffing that “The Venison entrée was poorly cooked (tough and grainy) and a side of French fries arrived at room temperature.” Doesn’t this guy know what side his bread is buttered on? Watch out, Amateur Gourmet! The gravy train will roll right over you if you keep this up.

The Power of Food Blogging [Serious Eats]