Pete Wells Out At NYT; Marilyn Hagerty In
Grand Forks, N.D. restaurant reviewing sensation Marilyn Hagerty has been hired to replace recently appointed New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells. "We have the greatest respect for Pete," said Times publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr. in a prepared statement yesterday, "but let's face it: his reviews are basically more of the same too-cool-for-school New York-centric blah-blah-blah. We expect Marilyn to bring a fresh voice and a critical eye refined by many decades of eating and writing about real food in the heartland." Hagerty, all but unknown outside her home state just a few short months ago, burst onto the national culinary scene in March after a review she'd written on a new Grand Forks Olive Garden went viral. "These days," Sulzberger added in his statement, "the Times needs that kind of online presence."