The Simpsons

It would have been stupid to think I could take this job and avoid being compared to Jonathan Gold. I have to admit, though, I did not think the first comparison would have to do with our looks. And yet, that's exactly what happened when Eater L.A. posted a blurry photo taken at a panel I moderated at the Atlanta Food and Wine Festival (the photo has since been removed at the request of the photographer). "She's uglier than J.Gold.....holly [sic] shit!!!!!" one commenter wrote. "Its [sic] Jonathan Gold in drag," another quipped.

Sigh. I don't know if I can rightfully blame Eater for trying to unmask me. The unmasking of critics seems counterproductive and dumb, but we (restaurant critics) kind of brought this on ourselves, being all self-important and wearing wigs and pretending we're spies. I certainly can't blame the commenters for being outrageous dicks -- that's what the Internet was built for, right? Porn, food porn and acting out our worst selves from the vantage of ... what would you call that? Oh yeah, anonymity.

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Joel Stein

Joel selects barbecue wood.

Readers of Joel Stein's column in Time magazine may remember when Stein hobnobbed with the super-rich over bottles of wine valued at more than $5,000 each. The night he sampled dishes inspired by Escoffier's 1903 cookbook in the Alinea kitchen. Or the time he gobbled up KFC's Double Down sandwich, made with fried chicken instead of bread. Some may have read in Food & Wine about his culinary escapades, such as bar-hopping with Tom Colicchio.

In March, the L.A.-based humorist began divulging his food adventures and not-so-humble opinions in Los Angeles Magazine. His first topic? Sea urchin. "It's the new egg, folded into any dish to add easy umami," he writes. Or maybe scoffs. Next, cold-pressed juice. And his unwilling enjoyment of a drink made in a hydraulic press that tastes "like a sweet autumnal salad." No surprise then, that the column, published every other month, is titled "The Intolerable Foodie."

Meanwhile, Stein's first book has just arrived in bookstores and e-readers. Man Made: A Stupid Quest for Masculinity charts Stein's attempts at masculine pursuits -- firefighting, hunting, boxing, home improvement, the army -- via the immersion journalism and contrarian outlook he's known for. All in a freaked-out attempt to become the ideal father for Laszlo, now 3.

We talked with Stein about foodie culture, cooking, masculine meals and the male-dominated restaurant industry. Catch him discussing the book 7 p.m. on Saturday at The Grove's Barnes & Noble. Stein may be a foodie, but he's not as intolerable as he says.

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If you're a food writer, or wish to become one, you might be writing a pithy piece about tonkotsu ramen or how to cook artichokes as we speak. But if you're having an existential crisis or just, well, thinking about it, you might want to ask Amanda Hesser (Food52, cookbooks, etc.) a question or two. Hesser is doing a live chat right now and for the next 30 minutes or so on the site Good Food Jobs. Check it out.

Barbara Fairchild wrote on her Facebook page and on Twitter earlier this afternoon that Real Eats, the weekly digital food magazine she edits, is ceasing publication: "Sorry to report this issue of Real Eats is our last. Was fun while it lasted. Thanks to all my great writers, and the talented crew in NYC." Fairchild confirmed by email that today's issue is the publication's last.

Fairchild, longtime editor of Bon Appetit, was named editor of Real Eats last December, and had been a columnist there for roughly a year before becoming editor. Real Eats has been published by Nomad, which since 2010 has made digital-only publications designed for mobile devices like the iPad. Yesterday Nomad also stopped publication of BodySmart, its health-oriented magazine. It has one magazine remaining, Uncorked, which focuses on wine.

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T. Nguyen

Calvin and Hobbes and Cookbooks

In our first food quiz, we pulled a few quotes from various food reviews, mixed them with choice bon mots courtesy one of the great wits of our time, Dorothy Parker, and asked whether you could identify who said what. In today's quiz, we swap Parker out for Bill Watterson, the cartoonist who created Calvin and Hobbes. Your goal is to differentiate between a boy and his pet tiger making astute observations on the human condition from folks simply talking about food. Because, as Calvin says, food should be nutrition and entertainment.

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D. Solomon

Nancy Silverton, Michael Voltaggio and Betty Hallock

Foodists could have done worse than to spend two sun-dappled days at USC last weekend for the L.A. Times Festival of Books. TV personalities and chefs including Michael Voltaggio and Chris Cosentino flaunted their skills at the Cooking Stage, Nancy Silverton dropped by for a chat, food journalists discussed their newest books and the smell of kettle corn wafted over it all.

Saturday, L.A.'s old guard met the new when Times deputy food editor Betty Hallock interviewed Silverton and Voltaggio. Our favorite discovery? That Voltaggio's new system for meeting fan-diners at Ink. is to rendezvous at the valet stand following their meal. Then he sprints back inside. Otherwise, it's hard to explain that he can't chat, even at the open kitchen; he has dinner to make.

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Screenshot of Food & Wine's Magazine's Twitter page

Food Book Fair

The food intellectual is not a new phenomenon, but it is a new cliche. The glut of rant-prone gonzo restaurant critic bloggers, armchair sustainability experts and urban chicken farming gurus reminds us that the importance of caring about food, where it comes from and who makes it has soaked deep into our collective psyche (and Twitter feeds) like milk into bread for meatballs. In less than two weeks, the first Food Book Fair will celebrate thinkers, writers and artists who make food their focus in a fairly massive marketplace of ideas set to go down at the new Wythe Hotel in Brooklyn.

Interested in intersections between food and art? Curious about how people living in cities are reaffirming their connection to the land they rarely see? Eager to tackle the concept of "food porn?" From May 4-6, the Food Book Fair will oblige with panels featuring Harold McGee, Colman Andrews, Ed Behr of The Art of Eating, Gael Greene, Peter Meehan and Dr. Marion Nestle, among the many confirmed gastro-sages, and representatives from such publications as Lucky Peach, Diner Journal, Edible Brooklyn, Gastronomica, Laphams Quarterly: The Food Issue, Meatpaper, Put a Egg on It, Remedy Quarterly, Swallow Magazine, The Runcible Spoon, White Zinfandel and Wilder Quarterly.

We know Brooklyn is pretty far away, but with a lineup like that (it's like the Coachella of writing about eating, though we doubt Prosper Montagné will be appearing via hologram), you may want to at least tell your friends to go.

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flickr4jazz/Flickr

A drink at the Algonquin Hotel's Blue Bar

Inspired by The Awl's fantastic -- and surprisingly somewhat difficult -- "Edith Wharton? Or Girls Review?" pop quiz last week, we created our own little take-home exam that may or may not shed some light on the state of food criticism today. Quotes from current food and restaurant reviewers are lined up alongside quotes from that great writer and critic Dorothy Parker. Can you pick out who's saying what? Turn the page to take the test ...

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Granted, you may be the sort of person who reads Lucky Peach and daydreams about Arzak eggs and impossibly rich pork broth instead of salad, but you might want to start checking out Cooking Light anyway. No, this is not an intervention. (Unless you want it to be.) Cooking Light is about a lot more than, well, cooking light. And the magazine is adding two new columnists in the coming months. Who? Well, that's what's interesting.

Rozanne Gold, a four-time James Beard Award-winning chef and cookbook author, will begin writing a column called "Radically Simple Cooking" in May. And in June, Naomi Duguid will debut her column, "Global Pantry." Duguid is the author or co-author with Jeffrey Alford of a great many books, including Beyond the Great Wall, Mangoes & Curry Leaves and Seductions of Rice. A food anthropologist -- specializing in the food of Southeast Asia -- as much as she is a writer of cookbooks, Duguid is the sort of writer who could make us read TV Guide or Popular Mechanics, if she suddenly decided to write for them. Not a bad idea, really.