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| Questions for Pete Wells, Restaurant Critic | Questions for Pete Wells, Restaurant Critic |
| (about 4 hours later) | |
| Pete Wells, the chief restaurant critic of The New York Times, will answer selected readers’ questions Monday and Tuesday. | Pete Wells, the chief restaurant critic of The New York Times, will answer selected readers’ questions Monday and Tuesday. |
| Mr. Wells was named the restaurant critic in November 2011. He was previously the editor of The Times’s Dining section since 2006. Before he joined The Times, Mr. Wells wrote a column for Food & Wine and was an editor at Details magazine. He has received five James Beard Foundation Awards for writing about eating and drinking. | Mr. Wells was named the restaurant critic in November 2011. He was previously the editor of The Times’s Dining section since 2006. Before he joined The Times, Mr. Wells wrote a column for Food & Wine and was an editor at Details magazine. He has received five James Beard Foundation Awards for writing about eating and drinking. |
| Submit your questions for Mr. Wells. | Submit your questions for Mr. Wells. |
| You can ask questions via Twitter with the hash tag #TalktoNYT. Mr. Wells’s is answering questions Monday afternoon and Tuesday. | |
| Some of Mr. Wells’s recent reviews include Dirt Candy, a vegetarian restaurant in the East Village , and Guy’s American Kitchen & Bar in Times Square. | Some of Mr. Wells’s recent reviews include Dirt Candy, a vegetarian restaurant in the East Village , and Guy’s American Kitchen & Bar in Times Square. |
| Q. Do you actually wear a disguise when you go into a restaurant for review? | |
| — Scott, New York | |
| A. As they say in debates, I'm glad you asked that question. There's probably no part of my job that has captured the popular imagination more than disguises. For some reason, people seem to want me to spend a lot of time in wig shops. But the sad truth is, I can't rock a wig like Dolly Parton. I've looked into it, and quickly discovered that hairpieces that are even remotely convincing cost thousands and thousands of dollars. Sure, I could amble down to the Fulton Mall and pick up a cheap rug, but they tend to look as if they were pulled off the back of a diseased raccoon. Anybody can spot one of those from across the street. The whole point of a disguise is to make you inconspicuous. | |
| I do fool around with my appearance in less dramatic ways sometimes. I won't get into any specifics of tradecraft, but I will say that sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. No matter what I do to my face, it's still my face, unfortunately. And I've seen my picture hanging on kitchen walls (don't ask me how I got into the kitchens), so restaurants know who to look for. If they're looking for me, they'll almost always spot me -- not necessarily on the first visit, but often enough by the time I've been in for three meals. | |
| I wish I could eat all my meals in anonymity. But many of the restaurants I review put more time and energy into spotting me than I could ever put into going unspotted. | |
| Q. Are there any dishes, ingredients or flavors you just don't like? How does that affect your job as a critic? | |
| — Adrienne Smith, Brooklyn, NY | |
| A. I'm not wild about green bell peppers, especially when they're raw. They contain a chemical that is very potent and hard to ignore. I'm not sure they're meant to be eaten, because once they've ripened they're much more appealing. I like green poblanos and jalapenos, which have some of the same aromatic compound, but they also have a little heat to compensate for it. I am also skeptical of pasta salad, but I've eaten a few that overcame my doubts. | |