Legends

It’s Pete Wells’s Turn to Pay Tribute to Craig Claiborne

He started all this.
He started all this. Photo: Richard Drew/AP

We’ll bring you this week’s ratings from the critics shortly, but over at the Times, this month marks 50 years since Craig Claiborne’s regular restaurant reviews started appearing, as Pete Wells writes. It was then that “reading the critics, eating what they had recommended, and then bragging or complaining about it … bec[a]me a national pastime.” Much like the gastro-seekers of today, the ahead-of-his-time Claiborne could be found “prowling the streets in search of Filipino, Armenian, Lebanese, Mexican, Hungarian and Czech menus.” Aspiring food writers, go read about this guy. [NYT, Related]

It’s Pete Wells’s Turn to Pay Tribute to Craig Claiborne