When it's done properly, taco should be a verb.
In a lot of ways I think food is starting to take the place in culture that rock and roll took 30 years ago.
I think the point of obsession with food means we're healthy as a species. When we're hungry, everything tastes good, hunger is the best spice. When you're in a area that has few resources, you work incredibly hard to have something. And then you make the something taste good. The greatest food in the world comes from the inventiveness of great privation. What emerges is all the miraculous fermentations and all the strong flavors. You put it together in the right way, it's delicious. That defines survival, and our human species.
In a lot of ways I think food is starting to take the place in culture that rock and roll took 30 years ago, in that eating has become incredibly political. And just as the street has always dictated fashions on music and other things, it’s starting to happen that way in food.
I think every culture is passionate about food; some are just passionate about food and the food is shitty.
I'm lucky to be in food at the moment, because we're living in a time where so many people are obsessed with it. People will go to food festivals now, and argue over the merits of a taco for hours. It's about the people who deeply care, and want that exchange of ideas.
Cooking is what makes us human. For example, Chimpanzees spend eight to ten hours trying to feed themselves, they are occupied by it, eating basically indigestible things. Once our human ancestors learn to cook things, suddenly we didn't have to spend that much time on digestion, our brains expanded, and we think about other things.
Everybody talks about the internet being the ultimate repository of cooking knowledge. But it's not. It sucks.
I write mostly positive reviews. I don't write about places that don't interest me.
I don't go to McDonalds, but when I was working for Gourmet magazine in New York City, my daughter liked to go there. I was completely paranoid that someone would recognize me there and say, 'Gourmet critic spotted at McDonalds! Buying a Happy Meal!'
As a writer of criticism, the consumer thing is the least interesting thing, but as a critic, the single worst thing you can do is send a reader to waste time and money on something - even if it's something you personally love. You have to indicate the reasons why you love it and they'll hate it.
It's funny how everyone has a bizarre relationship with Google. The knowledge is there, but no one knows how to use it right.
Even though my entire writing persona is prefaced on me not being an expert, I kind of am an expert. I know a lot.
