Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

By that measure, in my experience -- and I've followed his taste recommendations in both New York and San Francisco, in high-end restaurants as well as holes-in-the-wall -- the best food writer I know of is Ed Levine.

Glad to hear someone ackowledge that reviewing food is something that should be accible to the other 95% of restaurant goers, not just those who like to feel superior. A review of a meal that only 5% of your viewers would ever consider eating is just forgetting your audience or perhaps just appeasing yourself over them. Reviewing food in your mind is for the chef, reviewing it in your words is for readers.

EDITORIAL

New York Times, 1902

"It is utterly insufficient (to eat pie only twice a week), as anyone who knows the secret of our strength as a nation and the foundation of our industrial supremacy must admit. Pie is the American synonym of prosperity, and its varying contents the calendar of the changing seasons. Pie is the food of the heroic. No pie-eating people can ever be permanently vanquished."

In response to an Englishman’s suggestion that Americans should reduce their daily pie eating to two days per week.

a meal from the oven, one crust or two

to begin – a reverse pie

a soupe veloutée of butternut squash and leeks topped with a parmesan puff pastry crust

to entice – a shift for the palette

cranberry salsa and fresh pea purée in baked wonton shells

to enjoy – an old favorite revised

smoked turkey and Swiss chard layered with crisp phyllo dough, served with sauce chasseur and crème fraîche

to complete – a clean and bright classic

orchard fresh apples, studded with sweet butter and cinnamon, baked in a straight pastry crust topped with sweet whipped cream laced with house-infused vanilla liqueur