The Price of Food Criticism?
Like many people, I have a rosy image of the life of a food critic. Former New York Times food critic Ruth Reichl’s books don’t glorify her life, but they don’t make the job itself sound too bad (if you can stomach the pay and lifestyle). This essay by novelist and freelance food writer Ann Bauer exposes the other side of professional restaurant reviewing: when the “scene” displaces meaningful relationships and food becomes a job rather than a passion. The article begins:
There’s a scene in the 1971 film “Klute” in which Jane Fonda, playing an aspiring actress who supports herself as a prostitute, is in bed with a client, pumping away, moaning, calling him “baby,” and then for one second her face changes, becoming ordinary and harried and mid-afternoonish, as she checks her watch behind the guy’s head. Fonda was heralded for her performance, for showing with a single gesture how the high-class call girl must engage simultaneously in two activities. How her mind and body could be entirely divorced from each other. How sex becomes work.
I get it.
It’s well worth a read and the approximately 4 seconds you will spend looking at an innocuous Bose ad to get past the first page of the article if you’re not a member of Salon.com.
Ann Bauer said,
January 5, 2006 @ 8:46 am
Olivia- I’ve commented on nothing else related to Food Slut but saw your blog this morning and had to clarify one thing. I was paid $54,000 a year to work as a food editor approximately 60 hours per week (8-hour days at the office, plus evenings out). I support three children (one with special needs), live in a major city, had to have a wardrobe of nice clothes, and used my own credit cards for all meals, often waiting up to a month for reimbursement. Our company had cut health coverage down to a minimum. I was barely making it.
Thanks so much for your thoughtful words about the essay–
AB
jen maiser said,
January 8, 2006 @ 12:04 am
Great article - thanks for the pointer to it - I hadn’t seen it. I think it’s a good gut check for all of us who have, at one time or another, aspired to write food porn.
Glad to have found your blog through Becks/Posh.
The Sour Patch said,
January 8, 2006 @ 12:07 pm
Slut, Schmut, Just Pass the Canapes, Revisted
It seems Ann Bauer’s expose of a food critic’s life, which I’d previously written about, is still making waves in blogdom.
I’m reminded of the movie The Weatherman, wherein a weatherman’s life is punctuated by the minor re…
Teich.Net :: All In » Foodie = Fat ? said,
January 8, 2006 @ 10:18 pm
[...] A few days ago I posted a link to an article called “Food Slut” and had the pleasure of a response from its author, Ann Bauer. The essay has garnered much attention in the food blogging community and sparked quite a controversy in Salon.com’s own letters section with nearly 60 responses so far. I have been amazed by one idea in particular that I fear may gain credence through the force of repetition: that thinking and talking so much about food is to blame for rising obesity rates in America. [...]