Lost in the Stars, News      10/16/2008  

Jay Jacobs Dies, and an Era Dies With Him

Jay Jacobs, in his later years. Photo coutesy Gourmet.

Jay Jacobs, the Gourmet magazine New York critic, has died, and that makes me feel sad. For one thing, the prolix, rhetorically flamboyant, ostentatiously brilliant Jacobs was the first food writer I ever read with eagerness; in Atlantic City in the early 80s, reading his reviews made me and countless other provincials feel part of the great go-round of New York gastronomy, even as our immediate surroundings were marked by gray Steak-Ums and discount scrapple. Jacobs’ erudite, allusive style also showed me that a food writer could be an intellectual, and not just someone who said that peas were green; and to this day few writers have surpassed him in literacy or brittle wit. It’s hard to read many of his columns now; they seem inordinately pleased with themselves. But they had personality. And that is the saddest part of all…Few of today’s critics other than Frank Bruni and Adam Platt have any noticeable personality at all; reading the Wednesday reviews every week is often like sorting through chickens in a bin, looking for one that is slightly larger than the rest. But any critic at all is better than none; since Gourmet dispensed with a monthly New York review, the chair he sat in, like a burnished throne, has been vacant. The magazine itself, though still popular and well-written, is likewise indistinguishable from half a dozen travel and lifestyle titles; and the wit lately snuffed out has fewer and fewer emulators as the number of voices , both online and in print, have multiplied. Gourmet has a tribute on their website today; but read the critic in his own words to get a sense of what we’re all missing out on.

Gourmet: A Tribute to Jay Jacobs

Gourmet: The Man Who Went to Dinner, by Jay Jacobs

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One Response to “Jay Jacobs Dies, and an Era Dies With Him”

  1. Gourmet Remedies Personality Defecit With Jonathan Gold | The Feedbag on October 24th, 2008 2:30 pm

    [...] the other day. Jay Jacobs, the magazine’s erstwhile critic, had passed on and The Feedbag took the opportunity to lament the lack of original voices in the magazine. We don’t take it back; what Gourmet [...]

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