Remembering Mimi Sheraton

Introduction

About a week ago, we were saddened to learn that Mimi Sheraton had died at the age of 97.  She wasn’t a personal friend or even a casual acquaintance, but we had been taking her advice since we started The Cook and The Writer.  Mimi was the author of “1,000 Foods To Eat Before You Die* , which we adopted as our Guidebook.  

Mimi was also the author of 15 other books.  These included cookbooks, like the mischievously titled “The Seducer’s Cookbook”* (1963), several other cookbooks, like “The New York Times Jewish Cookbook”*(2003), and a memoir, “Eating My Words: An Appetite for Life”*(2006).

But she was probably best known as the New York Times restaurant critic from 1976 to 1983, the first woman to review restaurants for The Times.  After that, she went on to write for Time, Condé Nast Traveler, Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, The Daily Beast, and, occasionally, The New York Times.

Now, to be honest, we didn’t know much about her, beyond the biographical notes in “1,000 Foods”.  But after reading her obituary, we wanted to know more about her and we wanted to read some of her restaurant reviews.  The more we read, the more fascinated we became. 

Mimi was an innovator, an explorer, an excellent cook, and a writer with a delightful sense of humor and a razor-sharp wit.  She traveled the world, tasted the food, and wrote about it in clear, evocative prose.  Ten years ago she said she had eaten 21,170 restaurant meals in 49 countries since 1953.  Hers might be the archetype of a life well-lived.  

Here’s some of what we learned.

A Brief Biography

Miriam “Mimi” Solomon was born in Brooklyn, New York on February 10, 1926.  Her father, Joseph, was a produce wholesaler who apparently hated vegetables.  Her mother, Beatrice, was an excellent cook.  She had dreams that her daughter would grow up and marry “the nice doctor from Scarsdale” and was critical of many of Mimi’s life choices.  

Mimi attended New York University, where she majored in marketing and minored in journalism.  After graduating from college in 1947, she worked writing about home furnishings for an advertising agency, then for Good Housekeeping and Seventeen magazine.  

She honed her skills as a restaurant critic during stints at Cue magazine, The Village Voice, and New York magazine.  In 1975 she joined The New York Times as a reporter and became their food critic in 1976.  

Mimi was married twice, first to William Sheraton (1945 – divorced 1954) and then to Richard Falcone (1955 until his death in 2014).  She had one son, Marc Falcone.

Mimi’s goal: Straight service

Food critics are often characterized in television and the movies as haughty and vindictive, expecting Michelin-class service at every meal, and striking fear in the hearts of restaurant owners and chefs.  From all accounts we’ve seen, Mimi Sheraton didn’t fit that caricature.  If there was a mold for food critics, she probably broke it.  

For starters, she approached her work with a focus on informing her readers, not speaking down to them.  In a 2019 interview she said

Doing those “straight service” reviews meant following, or often exceeding, the guidelines for restaurant reviews established at The Times in the early 1960’s.  Reviewers were expected to visit a restaurant multiple times.  The guidelines suggested three visits, but Mimi would often dine in a restaurant six or eight times.  

They were to remain anonymous, not calling attention to themselves.  Over a long career, this can be tricky, even in a large city like New York.  Mimi went to elaborate lengths to hide her identity.  She made reservations using false names.  She wore disguises, including a variety of wigs and colored glasses.  Usually, she put the wig on in the cab on the way to the restaurant, so no one in her office would know what she looked like.

Hiding her identity was key to making an accurate assessment of a restaurant.  In her New York Times obituary, Robert McFadden quoted Mimi from her memoir “Eating My Words: An Appetite for Life”. 

Mimi’s work ethic emerged at an early age. Pete Wells, the current New York Times restaurant critic, wrote about it

That methodical approach carried through her professional life.  Stories are told about how she once bought over 100 corned beef and pastrami sandwiches in one day so she could study sandwich building techniques for an article.  In another legendary story, she spent 11 months tasting every item sold in Bloomingdale’s food department – 1,196 in total – for a review in New York Magazine.

In Her Own Words

Writing about food is incredibly difficult.  Try it:  After a meal today, write a review – without using the words “delicious”, “appetizing”, or “flavorful”.  What did it taste like?  How did the food look?  Was the service prompt and efficient?  (Warning:  If you were eating at home, please be careful if you criticize the cook!)

Now read it out loud.  

Now stop laughing or blushing or whatever you do when you’re embarrassed.  

It ain’t easy.  But like any artist in prime form or athlete at the top of her game, Mimi made it look easy and effortless.  Here are some examples.

A green fig

In a 2013 article for Smithsonian Magazine, Mimi wrote about her “10 Most Memorable Meals”.  Number 2 on the list was tasting “a green fig plucked from a tree in an Italian garden”.

Two one-star restaurants

Mimi’s weekly review columns usually featured two restaurants.  In a 1981 review, Mimi gave both restaurants 1 star (Good) out of 4 and called out the things that disappointed her.  But she also found ways to give some praise, too.

The first restaurant she reviewed was Pamir.  At the time it was only the second Afghan restaurant in New York City.  It had been open for two months when she visited.  (This was the minimum time required by the NYT for reviewing a new restaurant.)  She sounded hopeful as she began her review, mentioning “the exotic, entertaining, and satisfying cuisine of Afghanistan”.  She took pains to complement the staff, mentioning “the sincere and friendly staff of two” who offered suggestions on what dishes to try, and noted that “if there are occasionally extended time lapses between courses, the good will more than makes up for the wait.”

Mimi described each course, providing enough detail that someone unfamiliar with Afghan food might come away with an understanding of which items they might want to try and which ones they should avoid.

Having delivered praise and critique – both muted – she concluded that “a comfortable and diverting meal can be had at Pamir for moderate prices“.

She sharpened her pencil, and her tongue, for her comments about the second restaurant, El Parador Cafe.

Wait, not the reindeer?!

Mimi’s sense of humor showed through in a 2011 article about Scandinavian food for the New York Times.  She had been a fan of Scandinavian food since her first trip to Denmark nearly 60 years earlier.  In the present day, she noted, it was now called “Nordic” cuisine, a name that had “a nice exotic ring, summoning visions of Greenlanders and Laplanders fishing through ice, simmering up blubber confits and salt-curing chunks of Donner and Blitzen”. 

Just order the duck

In a 1980 review in the New York Times, Mimi compared two NYC restaurants that specialized in Peking duck.  She gave both restaurants two stars (Very Good), noting that they would have gotten three stars (Excellent) except for their “stubborn refusal to put the proper amount of spicy seasoning in dishes traditionally requiring them”.

And she would know.  Another of her 10 Most Memorable Meals was having Peking duck in Beijing, China. She described the preparation of the duck in mouth-watering detail:

Then she ended with a short cultural history lesson.

Conclusion

Eating at restaurants seven nights a week and sampling the entire menu had a predictable effect – Mimi got fat. After she left The Times, she lost 60 pounds.

In a world where anybody with an opinion (and you know what those are like) can share their half-formed thought on TripAdvisor or Yelp!, thoughtful writing about food can seem hard to find. But it’s out there, and those who practice the craft and we who read it owe Mimi Sheraton our thanks. She raised the bar. Let’s raise a glass to her.

Until next time / Até a próxima vez

Mary and Mike

The Cook and The Writer

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