Today, former New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni filed a piece on The Atlantic on why food television has reached such levels of popularity. Why is it that we continue to watch, but have generally decreased our amount of time spent actually cooking? Bruni floats a friend's opinion that we hang onto food television as a sort of "cultural nostalgia," reminiscent of an allegedly bygone era of home-cooked meals and family dinners. Then he offers his own analysis. More

A few weeks ago, my friend sent around an email asking for help naming her new dog. Some names that were tossed around: Pork chop...Burrito...Kumquat. My vote went to Burrito, hands down (paws down?). But they decided to go with another name—a name that's not even a food, but a food critic. Bruni, as in Frank Bruni. I knew they read the former New York Times critic's reviews every Wednesday morning, religiously, but wow. Anyone else have a pet with a food-related name? More

Did you miss last night's episode of No Reservations? It was Part 2 of Anthony Bourdain's food porn exposé, featuring chefs Daniel Boulud, Cesare Casella, and Michael White as well as former New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni. Oh, and actual porn star Ron Jeremy (unappetizing!) doing intros. Here you go! More

[Photograph: Rachel Strawn] Frank Bruni and I have at least two things in common: We’ve both hung up our professional feedbags and we’re both over the moon about the lardo lollipops at Salumi in Seattle. I got to meet the author of Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater when he was in the city on a West Coast leg of his book tour. We had lunch at the renowned salumeria started by Armandino Batali and now run by his daughter, Gina Batali, and her husband, Brian D’Amato. But before he sat down at the head of the table for 10, my friend and former Seattle Post-Intelligencer colleague Rebekah Denn and I double-teamed the former New York... More

"I was objectively chubby by age four, fat by age six, and was on the Atkins diet for the first time at age eight." --Frank Bruni Photographs by Robyn Lee For all of the serious eaters who overdosed on the hype surrounding Julie & Julia (hey, the back of my head was in the movie, so if I'm guilty as charged there's a good reason for that), I'm giving you a heads-up that the hoopla accompanying the publication of Born Round, now former New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni's memoir, is going to make Julie & Julia seem like it was an under-the-radar phenomenon. The book is in stores today, so let the Bruni media madness begin (it actually... More

One major plus about Frank Bruni stepping down from his New York Times Dining critic position is he has more time to mull over pressing issues like the merits of a Choco Taco. (And we can even see his face while he does so!) When Bruni appeared on Nightline this week, he moseyed over to an ice cream truck to review everyone's favorite rhyming dessert taco. How many stars did the Brunmeister give it? The video, after the jump.... More

I work at a wine bar. I pour a lot of wine. It goes with the job. When Christopher Hitchens posted his rant last week on Slate, I couldn't help but feel personally attacked. More

New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni is frustrated at the reservation process at Momofuku Ko, the impossible-to-get-into pork-injected haute-cuisine spin-off of David Chang's Momofuku empire in New York. The place has 12 seats and employs a web-based reservation system that requires you to log in at 10 a.m. for seats a week out. It's egalitarian in theory, and I admire Chang and company for subjecting everyone—VIPs and schlubs alike—to the same miserable experience of signing on and viewing a series of little red Xs indicating you're hosed. Supposedly, the place does not play favorites. Still, as level as the playing field is, there've been complaints about logging on, seeing a green checkmark, clicking on it, but then being told... More