Should Food Critics Have Term Limits

My comment on 7x7

Term limits don't work. There is a lot of pressure from the established industry and chains for the critics to be a simple PR front. Any limits on the critic and the restaurant groups will have more ammo. Bauer may be a lot of things but he does keep everyone in line. The food scene does need its regulators also. A critic is not an entertainer but more of a market maker (in the stock market). He/she helps maintain a healthy price on the restaurant value by the reviews. You can read many Bay Area critics for entertainment value but none not even Josh S has a bona fide scoring system that keeps the industry in line. I don't think the industry issue (pressure)is to get Bauer out or not somehow but to find a way to rig this score system. There is a lot of money to be made from inflated and biased scores. And Bauer is in the way because he will screw anybody.

Bye-Bye Bruni: Should Critics Have Term Limits?

Anton Ego: How long is long enough for a critic to rule?

Courtesy of the best movie ever.

The food world is all abuzz this morning with the news that Frank Bruni, restaurant critic for theNew York Times, will be stepping down from his post following the release of his memoir in late August. (The food critic memoir: Everyone's doing it.) It's probably not an overstatement to say that Bruni has had the single-most powerful restaurant reviewing job out there, so bets are already being placed on his likely replacement. I like Bruni, but judging from some of the responses to his departure, there are plenty who are happy to see him go.

But notable (to us, at least) is Bruni's relatively short tenure as critic; he took the job in April of 2004. Looking back further, there seems to be a five-year itch. Prior to Bruni, William Grimes held the post (from April 1999 until April 2004); before that, Ruth Reichl, with her legendary disguises, held the position (from 1993 to 1999). During this time, San Francisco has had one main critic. Every critic has a style, a voice—and more importantly, inevitable biases and a myriad of preferences. Because of this, should there be a limit to a critic's reign?

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