We don't usually announce new hires. We assume you don't really care who fills up the cubicles around here, as long as they write somewhat coherent sentences, occasionally stumble on something interesting and are willing to risk heart disease to eat where ever you instruct them.
But since you City of Aters took such an interest in the departure of our last food critic, I thought I'd let you know that we found a replacement. And we couldn't be happier about it.
His name is Scott Reitz. He spent his youth navigating sweaty kitchens in the Washington, D.C., area before falling into a career in some sort of engineering. He explained it to me over beers at the Dallasite last week, and I still don't understand it, which probably explains why, several years back, he started asking D.C. editors about writing for them.
The editors said yes, and Scott's work started infecting the food sections of publications across D.C., including the Washington City Paper, the Washingtonian , the Washington Post, and chef Michel Richard's DC Chefs magazine, for which Scott was charged with testing the recipes.
Now, after several years as a nights-and-weekends freelancer, Scott is ditching his very respectable day job and, starting next month, embarking on a career as a full-time food journalist.
Our congratulations to Scott. And our apologies to his mother.
