The Bruni

Thursday seems like the best time to do an introduction to one of the big cheeses (pun intended) of the food writing world: Frank Bruni.

Bruni is the New York Times’ current food critic, and every Thursday he makes or breaks a New York restaurant. Living in New York myself, his column is a must-read. I will, of course, try to make this blog as non-New York Centric as possible, but it is impossible to ignore this man who sets himself up for satire. Yes, behind those dreamy eyes and perfect coif is a man whose writing uses enough esoteric words to confuse even the most literary.

Another wonderful aspect of familiarizing yourself with Bruni is his very own “fan” site, The Bruni Digest, which deconstructs, and often skewers, Bruni’s weekly manifesto. As the blogger puts it “This blog is predicated on the suggestion that every Wednesday, in the Times Dining Out section, Frank lays a huge faberge egg of hilarity”, which is just the sort of thing we love over here.

This week the B-Man writes a positive (which means two stars, mind you) review of Chelsea’s new restaurant Cookshop. As usual, Bruni spends much of the review pontificating on the restaurants philosophy of listing the famers for the day’s menu, and including such comfort foods as Deviled Eggs. Sure, for never saying a bad remark about a restaurant, two stars may seem low, but this is the Bruni, and he does not dole out stars for just anyone.