Posts Tagged ‘Tom Sietsema’
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Friday, July 30th, 2010
(Image: The Next Web)
I’ve been remiss, as of late, in recognizing my fellow food- and drink-minded Tweeters. And for that, I am truly sorry.
Let me begin to make amends by heaping praise upon:
* Shell shocked social butterfly Shea Sylvia (@sheasylvia via @Jezebel) for illustrating how cavalierly broadcasting your every move can inadvertently hem you in;
* Hired mouths Tom Sietsema (@tomsietsema) and Frank Bruni (@FrankBruni via @CKummer) for pointing out the grist of the food critic grind;
* Breakfast bon vivants Kelly Choi (@KellyChoi), Stacey Viera (@staceyviera) and CapMac (@CapMacDC) for sharing some candid shots of their rise-and-shine worthy repasts;
* Postie Bonnie Benwick (@bonniebenwick) for putting storm-related woes into terms I can understand;
* Res’y glutton @garlicandhouse for so brazenly abusing the Restaurant Week privilege; and,
* Attentive traveler Julie Collazo (@collazoprojects) for helping keep the friendly skies charcuterie-free.
Great work this week, people.
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Wednesday, April 21st, 2010
I may not have the name recognition, industry clout or generous expense accounts enjoyed by my fellow D.C.-Metro restaurant critics.
But when it comes to dopey fans, yours truly is the shaznit.
At least, that’s what I’m taking away from my latest Stupid Fight standings.
British comedian and iconoclast Tom Scott created the linguistic litmus test, a process which liberally penalizes those who rely on exorbitant punctuation (“Long strings of exclamation marks produce the harshest grading, if I remember rightly,” he explained), emoticons and/or texting shorthand (LOL, OMG) to get their flippant messages across. The calculations are culled from your last 100 @ replies–proving, once again that silence is golden–all of which makes SF rankings a very fluid barometer of the collective grey matter in any Tweeters immediate orbit.
Though originally designed to shame the sheep who while away their days composing unrequited missives to celeb Tweeters, I decided to run our local food personalities–including critics Tim Carman, Todd Kliman and Tom Sietsema–through the IQ wringer to see how our respective flocks fared.
I’m proud/sorry to report that in these here parts, I’m King of the World!
* @WARojas – SF score: 500 (putting you all just north of “thick as two short planks”)
* @tomsietsema – 286
* @timcarman – 88
* @toddkliman – 0 (squarely planted in the “smart as a whip” camp).
My regional dominance clearly established (holla!), I elected to pit some national food folks against one another:
* Alimentary ethnographers Michael Pollan (@michaelpollan) v. John T. Edge (@johntedge): 248 – 93 (respectively)
* Gastro gatekeepers Dana Cowin (@fwscout) and Christopher Kimball (@cpkimball): 111 – 292
* New York Times scribes Frank Bruni (@frankbruni) and Sam Sifton (@samsifton): 440 -271
* Culinary community builders Addie Broyles (@broylesa) and Robin Davis (@DispatchKitchen): 252 – 233 (*tightest race of the day*)
* Food scholars Michael Ruhlman (@ruhlman) and David Leite (@davidleite): 694 – 0 (*the widest spread encountered*), and,
* Dirty Dirty dining sleuths Bill Addison (@BillAddison) and Brett Anderson (@BrettAndersonTP): 443 -286
So, what did I learn from my intensive investigation into Stupid Fight?
Not much.
But whadja expect from a guy whose “fans” must remain ever vigilant lest they forget to keep breathing…
–Warren
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Friday, February 26th, 2010
(Image: Etiole)
Kind of a mixed bag this week.
Everything from health care summit outtakes to a paean to fallen porn stars. But isn’t that the whole point of the Interweb?
* Food photog Matt Armendariz (@MattArmendariz) for confirming that something’s fishy in his kitchen;
* Fellow resto sleuth Tom Sietsema (@tomsietsema) for admitting that sometimes this gig can be a drag;
* Snark maven Miss Creant (@Trick_or_tweet) for making myocardial infarctions fun again;
* Food devotee Jenny Miller (@JennyHighlife) for spotting the divine in cured swine;
* Muckraker Christina Bellantoni (@cbellantoni) for taking the food fight to THE bully pulpit;
* Rhetorical genius Gael Greene (@GaelGreene) for brilliantly weaving together fruit, fornication and fleeting fame; and,
* Visionary Sarah LeTrent (@SarahLeTrent) for using feng shui to plot a more flavorful future.
A tip of the hat to some truly gifted tweeters. I have SO much to learn.
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
(Image: Capital Spice)
Capital Spice’s composite “best of” map that is.
Tech-savvy food blogger Mike Bober has incorporated our latest 50 Best Restaurants picks into an evolving dining atlas demarcating the current dining favorites trumpeted by local critics–myself, Tim Carman of the Washington City Paper, Todd Kliman of the Washingtonian and Tom Sietsema of the Washington Post (with the most prominent Zagat scores thrown in for good measure).
A quick scan of the fully integrated food awards uncovered a few interesting tidbits:
* 2941, Four Sisters and Ray’s the Steaks were the only universally acclaimed establishments
* Of the 19 overlapping reviews, we agreed with Kliman most (74 percent of the time), followed by Sietsema (47 percent) and Carman (42 percent)
We look forward to poking around Bober’s information buffet as it continues to grow.
–Warren
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Thursday, July 2nd, 2009
Perhaps I’m reading too much into this.
But media darling Present seems to be signaling a changing of the guard on their press page:
(Image: Present)
Granted, yours truly is relegated to the fourth position in the pantheon of local food critics.
But at least they bothered to spell my name right (can you here me knocking, Tom?).
–Warren
Kudos to our Local Beard Foundation Awards Contenders
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Monday, March 23rd, 2009
The finalists for the 2009 James Beard Foundation Awards are now official, and we’ve got a host of hometown talents vying for the coveted food industry prizes.
Restaurant Eve toque Cathal Armstrong,
(Photo: Jonathan Timmes)
Rasika chef Vikram Sunderam and Peter Pastan (2Amys/Obelisk) [*my apologies to Pastan for leaving him off the original post*] are all in the hunt for the Best Chef – Mid-Atlantic mantle.
Chef Johnny Monis got a nod in the Rising Star category.
(Photo: Jamie McCarthy/wireimage.com)
The now bi-coastal José Andrés could theoretically score a Beard Foundation hat trick if he were to take the top honors in the web/radio, best new restaurant and outstanding chef categories.
(Photo: Bernardo Peréz)
Meanwhile, Washington Post dining critic Tom Sietsema racked up two nominations (newspaper features about restaurants and/or chefs, restaurant reviews) while the WaPo food section is in the mix for best newspaper food section (stellar work, Mr. Yonan!).
As for other media, several cookbooks/food tomes that we’ve recommended in our print edition are gunning for more widespread prestige (as if that were even possible), including: Cooking Up a Storm (American cooking category), Fat (single subject category) and Milk (reference and scholarship category).
You can view the full slate of 2009 nominees here.
To see the winners get their due live, you’ll have to break out your fancy duds and make your way up to enwhycee for the May 4 Awards Gala. The Beard Foundation is offering $50 discount for all ticket orders placed before April 4.
If you’ve never been, the event is quite an eye-opener. At least it was last year.
–Warren Rojas
