Chicago Sun-Times Food Section Now Produced by Advertising Department

Taking call ins from HS coaches looks great compared to this:

http://chicago.grubstreet.com/2013/03/sun-times_taste_section_debuts.html

 

*shrug* I used to buy the Sunday AJC for Susan Nicholson's 7-day menu planner. Well, that was one of the reasons.

It is pretty good and in my experience, people just want to see good recipes with things they can make. We run a syndicated food package and the one complaint we get is people can't seem to find fresh figs or or a certain kind of cheese.

High end foodie types aren't getting food news from the Sun-Times. Not with Lucky Peach or Saveur or Cook's Illustrated out there.

 

Has the food section existed for any other reason than to entice the grocery stores to plunk down a few shekels? Same for auto sections ... next review I read that says "Podunk Motors new midsize is a deathtrap" will be the first.

 

In a town like Chicago, the food section can have actual influence on food, wine and restaurants. But it won't if people think all the copy is bought and paid for.

 

How many "food critics" still give bad reviews?

The food section was an ad sheet a long time ago.

 

What papers do you read?

Besides, at the Sun-Times, and lots of other papers, restaurant reviews are in the "dining" section, a subset of entertainment:

http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/dining/index.html

Food is for the home chef. Recipes, ingredients, etc.

 

http://www.timesdispatch.com/entertainment-life/food-dining/restaurant-reviews/

 

Is Phil Vettel still the restaurant critic at the Chicago Trib?

I never considered eating at 90 percent of the restaurants he reviewed (most were out of my price range), but he was a good writer and wasn't afraid to criticize menus, service, etc.

And yeah, he always ran in the Friday section (or whatever it's called now), not the Food section.

 

i find that these days, with foodie-ism run rampant, the restaurant critic can be one of the most important people at a local paper. obviously this depends on the size of the coverage area, but here in Philadelphia the food critic is one of the destination writers—and the lone person in town who stands above the mass of online yelpers. and he does give negative reviews.

 

Yes. He's still good, and someone I read.

 

http://www.tampabay.com/things-to-do/food/dining/hogans-beach-restaurant-in-tampa-needs-some-heavy-lifting/1275626

 

And how many "stories" do we see written because a certain place signed up for an ad package?