Alan Richmans take on "25 best"

[BrickStoneOven]

Here is a guy who should get a swift kick in the nut sack. When you start off your whole spiel about pizza by saying "Italians are wrong about pizza, and they’re not entirely mistaken about that, only about crusts and buffalo-milk mozzarella". Its going to make people who know about pizza not like you very much. He is basically knocking pizza without knowing it. He says how hard is it to make a pizza... really, lemme see you try and we can all %$# on you. For someone who has won 10+ awards for being a "Food Critic" I would think he would have more respect for it.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/30872147//

[PizzaNick]

once i got thru the first 2 pages of this guys bs, the descriptions of the pizza were still about the only thing he had to say worth listening to in my opinion.  im no chef or food critic or anything else, just a regular guy that likes pizza, but i gotta say that guy sounded like an ass and hearing all that garbage before his reviews really made me not even care what he had to say about them at all.

[shango]

Well, if the food critics keep it up with the "top x pizzeria" lists, pretty soon every pizzeria in America will be on somebodies list.  So, when it's all said and done, not such a bad thing.

[BrickStoneOven]

If you go on yelp and look at the places he has listed you will see people saying "Alan said this place is good and it sucked". The 3rd reply on yelp for the #1 place on Alan's list says that. I looked at a couple others and they say the same thing.

[scott123]

Richman is a notorious troll- err, I mean 'provocateur'

He's also a well known fixture in the elite NYC culinary establishment, an area that I've addressed before.

The James Beard Foundation, CIA, Ruth Reichl/NYT, the Food Network- they wouldn't know great pizza if it bit them in the butt.  NYC produces some of the best food on the planet despite it's culinary establishment.  New York's poor and middle class immigrants have put the city on map, not the people in power.

[robert40]

If you go on yelp and look at the places he has listed you will see people saying "Alan said this place is good and it sucked". The 3rd reply on yelp for the #1 place on Alan's list says that. I looked at a couple others and they say the same thing.

Opinions on Yelp should be taken with a grain of salt. I found Great Lake to be right up there with Pizzeria Bianco and enjoyed it very much. The husband and wife team are running their business the way they wish. Which is making pizza with care and passion. With that approach it often takes time and should not be considered fast food, even though Yelp reviews indicate it should be.

[BrickStoneOven]

Opinions on Yelp should be taken with a grain of salt.

Yea I know.

[Puzzolento]

I have some James Beard cookbooks, and the recipes were so  bad, I quit using them. I've also gotten terrible recipes from the Food Network. So I can't criticize this guy based on that quotation.

[scott123]

So I can't criticize this guy based on that quotation.

Ummm... I think you might have misread my post. I was quoting myself from a previous discussion.

'This' guy is a 14 time James Beard award winner, ie, he's part of NY's vast web of bottomfeed- uh, I mean culinary elite.

Btw, for his time, Jimmy Beard was a phenomenal chef.  I admire him tremendously for his contributions to cooking.  He also, along with the likes of Orson Welles, Babe Ruth and Henry VIII, holds an esteemed spot as one of history's most notorious and most eloquent gluttons. I may not reach for his cookbook frequently (one or two recipes have stood the test of time), but I do venerate the role he played in food history.  I feel similarly about Julia Child.  James Beard was a great man.  It's his memory/foundation that's taking his good name and driving it into the ground.

[sconosciuto]

Here is a guy who should get a swift kick in the nut sack.

Where do I sign up?

**putting on steel toed boots now**

[Puzzolento]

I was quoting myself from a previous discussion.

Then I guess you must be the one I can't criticize.

I have Beard on Bread and Beard on Pasta. I found them useless. Can't say I tried every recipe, but after several dogs in a row, I had no reason to. I also had the James Beard Cookbook, but I think I threw it out.

Never had any problems with Julia Child.