The brand new WaPo meals critic is setting his personal guidelines : NPR

[ad_1] <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/1535x1737+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F9a%2Ff1%2F9ac7ef6b43a7967d92750847e289%2Fadobe-express-file.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/1535x1737+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F9a%2Ff1%2F9ac7ef6b43a7967d92750847e289%2Fadobe-express-file.jpg" class="img" alt="Elazar Sontag, the new food critic at The Washington Post, talks with NPR's Morning Edition about rethinking how restaurant criticism can feel more accessible." fetchpriority="high"/> Elazar Sontag, the brand new meals critic at The Washington Submit, talks with NPR's Morning Version about ending anonymity and rethinking how restaurant criticism can really feel extra accessible. Sara Merg conceal caption

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Sara Merg Elazar Sontag didn't counsel a coveted reservation for our first lunch collectively. As an alternative, The Washington Submit's new meals critic led the best way to a church cafeteria tucked behind a car parking zone close to Mt. Vernon Sq., a spot that symbolizes what he desires meals criticism in Washington to be about.

Sontag joined the Submit in November, succeeding Tom Sietsema who held the position for 25 years.

After a number of years as Bon Appétit's restaurant editor, he arrived in Washington with pleasure to rethink a few of the long-standing traditions of the career. To begin, he has ditched anonymity and restored the star ranking system. Adjustments he describes, partly, as generational but additionally sensible.

"The massive consideration for me is how can we make restaurant criticism really feel like one thing that everybody wants, that it would not really feel out of attain," Sontag stated. "A part of that's placing it on completely different platforms, and it is actually laborious to try this if you cannot present your face."

That was certainly a part of our time (and scrumptious interview) on a current chilly afternoon, when Morning Version's Leila Fadel and her staff joined Sontag at Saint's Paradise Cafeteria at The United Home of Prayer for All Folks.

After a number of visits to the bustling area as analysis for a profile, Sontag informed us the neighborhood area — identified for its soul meals — is greater than "only a cafeteria."

"The layers of what makes this place distinctive places it on par with any of essentially the most critical eating places within the metropolis," he stated. "It is virtually a residing piece of historical past."