An appetite for food writing
Restaurant critic advises students to 'Educate their palates'
by Brooklyn Shearer, posted May 4, 2009
Writing about food can stir people’s emotions easily. Patricia Corrigan found out after she reviewed a restaurant. The owners apparently did not like what she had to say and were waiting for her outside the radio station where she had just been interviewed. She joked about it as she told many stories the afternoon of April 27 in the Bond Life Sciences Center.
Patricia Corrigan, a St. Louis-based food journalist and book author, came to MU on April 27 to speak about food journalism and her experiences in the food and wine industry. Corrigan, an MU School of Journalism grad, spent 23 years at the St. Louis Post Dispatch, 10 of which were spent writing about the food system and industry and another five in the restaurant industry.
“I didn’t intend to be a food writer,” said Corrigan.
But she knew she wanted to work for the Post Dispatch at a young age. She turned in her first application to the Post Dispatch when she was 14. They turned her away saying she at least needed a high school diploma. After she finished her undergraduate studies she applied again, and this time, was hired.
When one staff member left on maternity leave, Corrigan was asked to be the restaurant critic. “They said: ‘Here’s an American Express card, go out and eat,’” said Corrigan.
Her friends soon began to go to her when they wanted to try a new restaurant, hoping she would take them out to eat.
“I would go out with a few people and we would all order different things so I could taste them all,” said Corrigan. While entertaining her taste buds, she learned quite a bit about the restaurant industry.
“I came to respect people who open restaurants; the hours are terrible and the work is hard,” said Corrigan. “You can lose a lot of money in the restaurant business.”
Corrigan was not a food critic who disguised herself. But, while she had a headshot of herself placed by the column she wrote, most of the time the waiters or waitresses didn’t recognize her.
“I made reservations under different names, tried not to make a big deal of being there and tried to go to new places,” she said.
She never limited herself as to what kinds of restaurants she would eat.
“I would go to places who were reinventing themselves, I went to little bitty neighborhood places and great big expensive places,” she said.
But she did have a limit as to what she would order.
“There were two things I did not want to order,” she said. “Sweet breads and dead baby cows.” She would eat it if someone else ordered it but she would not order it for herself.
When asked what the most important thing about a restaurant is she said: “Do I feel welcome? There are a lot of very good restaurants that don’t make you feel welcome.”
Corrigan enjoys writing and learning about the food industry because she learns something new every time she goes out to dine. She also feels like she is making a difference in the St. Louis area when it comes to food and wine by creating a more informed public.
“I’m changing the restaurant world one French fry at a time,” said Corrigan.
