Frankly, I felt a little rusty in the hosting department. Critics rely on a gaggle of people — friends, family, colleagues, neighbors, the interesting couple they meet at a show — to help them do their jobs: taste the full range of a menu. (“It’s like a dinner party every night!” someone once described my job, leaving out the fact that the job requires me to remember a thousand details and then weave them into something people will want to read.) The pandemic forced me to slash my list from dozens of dining companions to a mere handful of people close to me, including a significant other who couldn’t recuse himself from restaurant reviews because those meals were mostly takeout and delivery, eaten within our own four walls or outside, even in winter. What was he going to do, ask for a separate table?

Source: Washington Post June 09, 2021 12:00 UTC