American restaurant critic, food journalist and book author
Craig Claiborne
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Claiborne in 1981
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Born
| (
1920-09-04
)
September 4, 1920
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Died
| January 22, 2000
(2000-01-22)
(aged 79)
New York City, US
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Alma mater
| University of Missouri (B.A.)
Ecole hoteliere de Lausanne
(Lausanne Hotel School)
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Occupations
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Craig Claiborne
(September 4, 1920 – January 22, 2000
[1]
) was an American
restaurant critic
,
food journalist
and book author. A long-time food editor and restaurant critic for
The New York Times
, he was also the author of numerous
cookbooks
and an
autobiography
. Over the course of his career, he made many contributions to
gastronomy
and food writing in the United States.
[2]
Early life
[
edit
]
Born in
Sunflower
,
Mississippi
, Claiborne was raised on the region's distinctive cuisine in the kitchen of his mother's
boarding house
in
Indianola, Mississippi
.
He essayed in premedical studies at the
Mississippi State College
from 1937 to 1939. Finding it to be unsuitable, he then transferred to the
University of Missouri
, where he majored in journalism and got his B.A. degree.
[3]
Claiborne served in the
U.S. Navy
during
World War II
and the
Korean War
. After deciding that his true passion lay in cooking, he used his
G.I. Bill
benefits to attend the
Ecole hoteliere de Lausanne
(Lausanne Hotel School), located in
Lausanne
,
Switzerland
.
Career
[
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]
Returning to the U.S. from Europe, he worked his way up in the food-publishing business in
New York City
,
New York
, as a contributor to
Gourmet
magazine and a food-product publicist, finally becoming the food editor of
The New York Times
in 1957 following the Times' first food editor,
Jane Nickerson
. Journalism historian Kimberly Wilmot Voss said Nickerson had laid the foundation for modern professional food writing and that while Claiborne has been credited with modernizing the profession, Nickerson had started down that path years before he was hired as her replacement.
[4]
[5]
According to Voss, Nickerson "discovered" both Claiborne and
James Beard
.
[6]
Claiborne was the first man to supervise the food page at a major American newspaper and is credited with broadening
The New York Times'
s coverage of new restaurants and innovative chefs. A typical food section of a newspaper in the 1950s was largely targeted to a female readership and limited to columns on entertaining and cooking for the upscale homemaker. Claiborne brought his knowledge of cuisine and own passion for food to the pages, transforming it into an important cultural and social bellwether for New York City and the nation at large.
Claiborne's columns, reviews and cookbooks introduced a generation of Americans to a variety of ethnic cuisines – particularly
Asian
and
Mexican cuisines
– at a time when average Americans had conservative tastes in food, and what little gourmet cooking was available in cities like New York was exclusively
French
(and, Claiborne observed, not terribly high quality). Looking to hold restaurants accountable for what they served and help the public make informed choices about where to spend their dining dollars, he created the four-star system of rating restaurants still used by
The New York Times
and which has been widely imitated. Claiborne's reviews were exacting and uncompromising, but he also approached his task as a critic with an open mind and eye for cooking that was different, creative and likely to appeal to his readers.
Inspired by food writers including
M. F. K. Fisher
, Claiborne also enjoyed documenting his own eating experiences and the discovery of new talent and new culinary trends across the country and across the world. Among the many then-unknown chefs he brought to the public's attention was the
New Orleans
,
Louisiana
, chef and restaurateur
Paul Prudhomme
. At the time, few people outside America's
Deep South
had any awareness of Louisiana's
Cajun
culture or
its unique culinary traditions
.
Along with chef, author and television personality
Julia Child
, Claiborne has been credited with making the often intimidating world of French and other ethnic cuisine accessible to an American audience and American tastes. Claiborne authored or edited over twenty cookbooks on a wide range of foods and culinary styles, including some of the first best-selling cookbooks dedicated to healthy, low-
sodium
and low-
cholesterol
diets. He had a long-time professional relationship and collaborated on many books and projects with the French-born New York City chef, author and television personality
Pierre Franey
. Claiborne was an advocate of a
fad diet
known as the
Gourmet Diet
. With Franey, he worked out two hundred low-sodium, low-cholesterol recipes for this diet.
[7]
The $4,000 meal
[
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]
In 1975, he placed a $300 winning bid at a charity auction for a no-price-limit dinner for two at any restaurant of the winner's choice, sponsored by
American Express
. Selecting Franey as his dining companion, the two settled on
Chez Denis
, a noted restaurant located in
Paris
,
France
, where they racked up a $4,000 tab (equivalent to $22,600 in 2023) on a five-hour, thirty-one-course meal of
foie gras
,
truffles
,
lobster
,
caviar
and rare wines. When Claiborne later wrote about the experience in his
New York Times
column, the newspaper received a deluge of reader mail expressing outrage at such an extravagance at a time when so many in the world went without. Even the
Vatican
and
Pope Paul VI
criticized it, calling it "scandalous."
[8]
It was also noted that he and Franey ordered nearly every dish on the menu, but they took only a few bites of each one. Despite its scale and expense, Claiborne gave the meal a mixed review, noting that several dishes fell short in terms of conception, presentation or quality.
Death and legacy
[
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]
Claiborne, who suffered from a variety of health problems in his later years, died at age 79 at
St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital
, New York. No cause of death was given.
[8]
In his will, he bequeathed his estate to
The Culinary Institute of America
, located in
Hyde Park
, New York.
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- The New York Times Cookbook
(1961)
Harper & Row
- The New York Times Menu Cook Book
(1966) Harper & Row
ISBN
006010791X
- The New York Times International Cookbook
(1971) Harper & Row
ISBN
006010788X
- Craig Claiborne's Favorites from The New York Times
Vol. 1 (1975) Times Books
ISBN
0517324180
- Craig Claiborne's Favorites from the New York Times
Vol. 2 (1976) Times Books
ISBN
0517324180
- Craig Claiborne's Favorites from the New York Times
Vol. 3 (1977) Times Books
ISBN
0812907086
- Craig Claiborne's Favorites from the New York Times
Vol. 4 (1978) Random House Trade
ISBN
081290768X
- Cooking with Herbs and Spices
(1977) Bantam Books
ISBN
0553230751
- Veal Cookery
(1978) (with Pierre Franey) Harper-Collins
ISBN
0060107731
- Classic French Cooking
(1978) Time-Life Foods of the World
ISBN
0809400472
- Craig Claiborne's The New New York Times Cookbook
(1980) with
Pierre Franey
, New York Times Books,
ISBN
0-517-12235-9
- A Feast Made for Laughter
(1982) autobiography, Doubleday
ISBN
0385157002
- The Master Cooking Course
(1982) (with Pierre Franey), Putnam Pub. Group
ISBN
0399505865
- Cooking with Craig Claiborne and Pierre Franey
(1985) Ballantine Books
ISBN
0449901300
- Craig Claiborne's Memorable Meals Menus, Memories and Recipes from over Twenty Years of Entertaining
(1985) E P Dutton
ISBN
0525243526
- Craig Claiborne's The New York Times Food Encyclopedia
(1985) Crown Books
ISBN
0812912713
- Craig Claiborne's Gourmet Diet
(1985) (with Pierre Franey), Ballantine Books
ISBN
0345336356
- Craig Claiborne's Southern Cooking
(1987) New York Times Books
ISBN
0517077574
- Elements of Etiquette: A Guide to Table Manners in an Imperfect World
(1992) William Morrow & Co
ISBN
0688074022
- The Chinese Cookbook
(1992) (with Virginia Lee)
ISBN
0060922613
- Craig Claiborne's Kitchen Primer
(1993) Random House
ISBN
9780517093627
- The Best of Craig Claiborne: 1,000 Recipes from His New York Times Food Columns and Four of His Classic Cookbooks
(1999) Times Books
ISBN
0812930894
- (story on $4000 meal is anthologized in)
American Food Writing: An Anthology with Classic Recipes
, ed.
Molly O'Neill
(Library of America, 2007)
ISBN
1-59853-005-4
Quotes
[
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]
- "Cooking is at once child's play and adult joy. And cooking done with care is an act of love."
- "I am simply of the opinion that you cannot be taught to write. You have to spend a lifetime in love with words." (
A Feast for Laughter
, p. 150)
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Craig Claiborne, 79, Times Food Editor And Critic, Is Dead"
.
The New York Times
. January 24, 2000
. Retrieved
October 17,
2021
.
- ^
Wells, Pete (May 8, 2012).
"When He Dined, the Stars Came Out"
.
The New York Times
.
- ^
Mortiz, Charles (1970).
Current Biography 1969
. New York: The H. W. Wilson company. p. 96.
- ^
Sifton, Sam
(April 7, 2021).
"The Unsung Influence of a Pioneering Food Journalist"
.
The New York Times
.
ISSN
0362-4331
. Retrieved
September 28,
2023
.
- ^
Voss, Kimberly (October 1, 2014).
"Dining Out: New York City Culinary Conversation of James Beard, Jane Nickerson, and Cecily Brownstone"
.
New York Food Story
.
- ^
"The History of Food Journalism"
.
Journalism History journal
. September 16, 2020
. Retrieved
September 28,
2023
.
- ^
Crown, Elizabeth F. (1980).
Craig Claiborne's Gourmet Diet
.
Journal of the American Medical Association
244 (20): 2355.
- ^
a
b
"Craig Claiborne, pioneering New York Times food critic, dies at 79" (January 24, 2000)
Mount Carmel Daily Republican Register
, Mount Carmel, Illinois
External links
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]
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International
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National
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Other
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