A New Food Critic Makes Her Debut

What do you think of when you think of a Food Critic? Craig Claiborne…Ruth Reichl…Sam Sifton…Gael Greene? Someone sneaking into a restaurant in a cleverly devised disguise (false mustache, shades, distorting make-up), accompanied by an assortment of companions large enough to order widely and liberally from the menu?

Well, now you can picture an earnest high school senior who can match all of the above in the breadth and depth of her restaurant reviews. Alie Lambrosa has been sampling the culinary delights of her suburban NY surroundings (with one outlier, an excursion down to North Carolina) and recording it all in her WISE blog, THE WISE FOOD CRITIC: Alie Lambrosa’s WISE Blog– Food Reviews of restaurants within an hour of Somers, New York. Her eye is acute, her observations astute and balanced, her tastes obviously well-cultivated and her photos downright delicious.

A Food-fueled Journey

Alie began her eating adventure at the end of January, with her first stop, Little Crepe Street in Mt. Kisco, NY. In her first blog piece, she hones right in on the atmosphere: “The restaurant itself is small and seating is tight, but the decor is very unique and very appealing. As you can see in the first picture, they serve their water in these adorable mason jar glasses!  The staff is pretty great, although when it gets busy they seem very overwhelmed. The location is very easy to find, but unless you can parallel park, the parking is very tricky!”

She sampled the fare and wrote balanced reviews of it all, ending up with her favorite: “…the chocolate brie grilled cheese, served with whipped creme and a raspberry sauce. The presentation is outstanding, very intriguing.  All I can say about this dish: WOW! The bread was perfectly grilled and the brie cheese and chocolate filling went very well together!  I thought the raspberry sauce made it a bit too sweet though, I would have preferred a few fresh raspberries in a bowl than that sweet sauce. Although it is almost too filling for a dessert, the dish itself is really great for anytime of the day! – $8.50”

Xaviers’ dessert

The Fine Art of Food Criticism                                                                        And with that, she was off to the (food) races. Along with going to, tasting, photographing and reviewing a wide variety of restaurants – in Somers, Mt. Kisko, Mahopac, White Plains, Yonkers, Ridgefield CT and other nearby towns – she has interviewed restaurant owners and chefs and honed in on the essentials of food critiquing. In her blog, she wrote that after following guidelines that she had made up for herself, she researched what she called “legitimate guidelines on restaurant criticism and learned a lot, much of which she had already figured out on her own: the necessity (as taken from http://www.afjonline.com/FoodCriticsGuidelines.cfm)

To be fair
To be honest
To understand and illuminate the cuisine about which he or she is writing.
To look beyond specific dishes and experiences to capture the whole of a restaurant and its intentions….

• Reviewers should sample the full range of the menu, from appetizers to desserts. Reviewers must taste everything ordered, or at least all the items they mention in a column.
• Order dishes that involve different cooking techniques (steamed, deep-fried, sautéed); different ingredients (one orders fish, another asks for beef); different styles (something traditional, something eclectic).
• Ratings should reflect a reviewer’s reaction to menu, atmosphere, service and value, and should be determined with regard to what the restaurant is trying to accomplish: An Indian restaurant shouldn’t be downgraded because it doesn’t serve filet mignon, for example. 

So what will Alie do for her presentation? I’m sure people are hoping for food samples. Reading her blog, listening to her experiences, salivating over her photos simply makes everyone hungry for more. We’ll keep you posted!