Restaurant critic’s departure reveals potential hazards of the job

Restaurant critics appear to have the best job in journalism, enjoying meals a few nights a week on someone else’s dime. But New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells had painted a more complicated picture. In a recent column, Wells announced he’s leaving the beat because the constant eating has led to obesity and other health problems. “Intellectually, it was still really stimulating, but my body started to rebel and say, ‘Enough is enough,’” Wells told The Associated Press. To write a review, food critics usually make two or three visits to a restaurant and bring a handful of dining companions so they can taste as many dishes as possible. If the restaurant has a special focus on wine, cocktails, or desserts, they try those, too. “You have to sample the full range of the menu,” said Ligaya Figueras, the senior food editor and lead dining critic for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “If I really felt like a salad today, I can’t just have the salad.” Special features, like lists of the best places to get pizzas or hamburgers, may have critics eating the same fare for weeks. MacKenzie Chung Fegan, a restaurant critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, sampled Peking duck all over the city for a story about a restaurant that specialized in the dish. “There was a two-week period where I was eating more duck than anyone’s doctor would advise,” Fegan said. Wells isn’t the only restaurant critic to make a change in recent years. Adam Platt stopped covering restaurants for New York magazine in 2022, also citing the toll on his health. Wyatt Williams stopped covering restaurants for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2019, saying he had simply lost his appetite. Wells said he will continue to go to restaurants and maybe even enjoy them more now that he’s not distracted by work. He said he will be sorry to lose touch with New York’s seemingly infinite restaurant scene, but glad to find more balance in his own life. “Eating out constantly, you lose touch with your own normal appetite,” he said. “I didn’t know anymore what was normal for me.” This article was provided by The Associated Press.