Who

Bruni is the restaurant critic for the New York Times, which makes him the most powerful restaurant critic in New York.

Backstory

Bruni grew up in Westchester, went to college at UNC-Chapel Hill, and earned a master's from Columbia's j-school before taking a job at the Post in the late 1980s. He moved on to the Detroit Free Press, where he covered the Gulf War and worked as a movie critic, and returned to New York in 1995 to join the Times as a reporter at the metro desk. Three years later, he was dispatched to Washington to cover national politics and the 2000 presidential election (Bush's nickname for him was "Pancho"), then moved to Italy in 2002 to serve as the Times' Rome bureau chief. In 2004, Bruni was tapped to be the newspaper's restaurant critic, a job that had been previously held by William Grimes. (Amanda Hesser was the interim critic after Grimes stepped down in late 2003.) He officially started in April 2004, and he's been torturing chefs and restaurateurs since.

Of note

By virtue of his Times association, Bruni has the capacity to make or break a restaurant. Restaurants that have tasted his wrath include Ninja (a spectacularly bitchy zero-star review), Harry Cipriani ("food so undistinguished it wouldn't pass muster at half the cost"), Gordon Ramsay at the London (a drubbing that prompted the London Hotel's management to hide the Times from hotel guests the day the review was published), and Robert De Niro's Ago. Brutal Bruni reviews have both resulted in chefs getting fired (Christian DeLouvrier of Alain Ducasse, Paul Liebrandt of Gilt) and killed off restaurants altogether (Lonesome Dove, Uovo).

While every food critic in the history of the paper has generated controversy (Ruth Reichl outraged purists by moving beyond French and Italian restaurants, for instance), Bruni has been more controversial than most. His lack of professional food experience going into the job remains a sore spot for some—prior to accepting his position, he'd never formally covered food. Others have accused him of favoring Italian restaurants, bearing a grudge against female chefs, and unduly punishing restaurants for having unflattering lighting schemes.

Regardless, he's not likely to stay on much longer. In March 2007, Bruni inked a deal to write a memoir about his experience on the job and the "unlikely" path he took to land it, and the book's release will probably be timed with his resignation as food critic.

Drama

Most restaurateurs go off and fire their chefs (or simply break down and cry) when they receive a less-than-complimentary review in the Times. Jeffrey Chodorow struck back. After Bruni delivered zero stars to his Kobe Club in January 2007, Chodorow spent $40,000 on a full-page attack ad against Bruni in the paper. (Chodorow's ad claimed Bruni was "no more of a restaurant critic than any of us who eat out regularly.") He also launched a blog devoted to "following Frank" and temporarily "banned" Bruni from his establishments.

In person

Like all restaurant critics for the Times, Bruni makes reservations under aliases and uses credit cards that list fictitious names. Old photos of him that some restaurateurs keep handy show him as fat; he's slimmed down over the past two years, which makes him harder to recognize. If you receive a rare invite to dine with Bruni, keep in mind he orders for the whole table (he's the one reviewing the food, after all). And come thirsty. Bruni's known to knock back quite a few drinks over the course of the meal. Regular dining companions include his agent, Lisa Bankoff, and a rotating cast of cute, young gay men eager for a comped meal at a fancy restaurant.

In print

Bruni is the author of A Gospel of Shame: Children, Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church. (In 1992, Bruni was nominated for a Pulitzer for a feature he wrote in the Detroit Free Press about a convicted child molester.) He's also the author of the 2002 book Ambling into History.

Personal

Bruni's past boyfriends include former Gawker managing editor Choire Sicha and Casper Grathwohl, the publisher of the Oxford University Press. He lives on West 74th Street.

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