Why I’m Intimidated To Write About This Writer
Thanks to Wayne’s World, the name Jonathan Gold sends waves of “I’m not worthy” through my head. Gold is the food writer in this town – maybe in the world. He’s the Los Angeles Times’ restaurant critic with fans all over. His @TheJGold Twitter feed has almost 72,000 followers – more than Senator Barbara Boxer, Michele Bachmann and innumerous B-list celebrities. But most intimidating to me is that he won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 2007 – the first restaurant critic to do so. I want to write like him.
Becoming a good writer at age 50 is daunting. I wasn’t an English major nor did I take any writing courses in college. I spent decades in corporate America writing banal yet consise letters, emails, proposals and memos. I later learned from a writing instructor that the term “business writing” is an oxymoron. Agreed.
I started to study the field of writing after launching the DeathbedFood Blog four years ago. The main thing I’ve learned is that good writing is good writing. Humor, non-fiction, literature, poetry, food – the genre doesn’t matter. What matters is that it’s good.
Jonathan Gold is a good writer. His recent LA Times review called “Cool Pizza Guys” about Jon & Vinny’s “haute local pizza joint” is one, small proof point.
About entering the restaurant:
And then you step back into the restaurant, toward the roar of conversation, the music, the garlic, the grilled cutlets, the wall of flames.
About the ambiance:
The restaurant may have the dimensions of an elongated storefront, but the blond wood looks like something out of a particularly elegant sauna.
About the pizza crust:
The crust is neither pale like a California pie nor freckled like the Neapolitan model – it is charred and smoking, thin and almost too crisp to fold, almost destroyed by the intense wood heat.
About a dish he doesn’t care for:
… tastes like something you may have tried to throw together for a dinner party in your first apartment, maybe less so.
Since the keys to good writing are using short words and concise thoughts, I’ll end with …………….. oh, sorry!!!! It’s TOO MUCH pressure TO FIND a few short words to leave you with. Jonathan – do you have any suggestions??? PLEEEEEEEEEZE?
