Scott Joseph knows good food, isn't afraid to point out the bad

Food critic Scott Joseph has a unique relationship with food. His career as a food critic directly affects people's opinions, and those who serve up the fare.

â┚¬Å”I know that people lost jobs because of things I wrote,â┚¬Â says food critic Scott Joseph. â┚¬Å”I know that people lost money because of what I wrote.â┚¬Â

It might surprise those who seek to vilify critics that Joseph doesn't see himself in a position of power, but something more akin to an educator.

â┚¬Å”To call it power sounds sinister,â┚¬Â he says, â┚¬Å”I think I had the opportunity to influence and introduce people to restaurants that they might not find.â┚¬Â

Joseph's writing career had an unlikely start in 1987 when he learned that the Phoenix New Times was looking for someone to write about food. He had no clippings to forward to the editor, because he had no experience as a published writer. He knew how to cook some things, but had no substantial food career. Still something about the job intrigued Joseph, so he wrote a two and a half page letter describing the approach he'd like to take and won the position.

New Times is an alternative weekly and it was the first in the country to have a full-time food section. It didn't take long for the paper to realize why they were the first. Grocery stores, Joseph gives an example, tend to be more conservative and didn't understand the tongue-in-cheek tone of the publication. One week before Christmas, Scott Joseph was fired from the Phoenix New Times.

Helped by a friend with a thick rolodex, Joseph began applying for food critic jobs in various parts of the country while freelancing. Early on in the process, his friend recommended checking into Orlando. â┚¬Å”I said, â┚¬ËœNo fucking way',â┚¬Â laughs Joseph. â┚¬Å”Just not moving to Florida.â┚¬Â

Eventually the unpredictable world of freelancing began to wear on Joseph, so when his friend suggested he apply for an open position at Orlando Sentinel, he decided to at least check it out. He arrived in Orlando for his interviewâ┚¬â€by now armed with writing clipsâ┚¬â€scared to death that he might get the job; but after two and half days of interviewing, he was scared to death he wouldn't get it.

He was that impressed with the operation at the time. He chuckles when he remembers how he followed up the interview with phone calls in case they needed more information. Joseph may not like to think of it as power, but for the next 20 years he was the word on restaurant going in Central Florida.

â┚¬Å”The newspaper industry is staring the future in the face,â┚¬Â says Joseph of the anticipated death of print in favor of online resources. It is among the reasons that Joseph decided to take a buyout when the Sentinel first started offering them. He thought the timing was right to explore other challengesâ┚¬â€he had also heard that the first buyouts would be among the more lucrative.

So in 2008, Joseph left the Orlando Sentinel hoping to explore other career avenues, but those opportunities fell through with the onslaught of the recession. To keep in the game, he began writing a food blog and, based on feedback, decided to make it something more substantial and launched ScottJosephOrlando.com, a restaurant guide to Orlando's restaurants complete with restaurant listings and Joseph's reviews.

While the Sentinel may have been an envied â┚¬Å”bully pulpit,â┚¬Â Joseph seems to have maintained his respected voice in the restaurant community and moved more toward the educational aspect that has always been important to him. To wit, Joseph recently developed an iPhone app that gives people a GPS listing of the 10 closest restaurants.

ScottJosephOrlando.com is essentially a one-man band, but he does get help with web maintenance and has employed people to sell ads for the site. Interestingly, he won't allow restaurants to advertise on his site unless he has endorsed them. In this way, he hopes to maintain the integrity of his opinions, while making the site profitable, at the same time.

â┚¬Å”I've joked that family-style dining means that everyone gets into the kitchen and starts arguing,â┚¬Â Joseph says when referring to the stress of entertaining at home during the holidays. He recommends keeping things traditional when preparing meals, avoiding the temptation to try new things. Your guests anticipate â┚¬Å”certain flavors and certain dishes.â┚¬Â

When it comes to dining out on for Christmas, Joseph says he can only recommend what a restaurant is like on a regular day. On Christmas day, â┚¬Å”All bets are off.â┚¬Â On that day, the restaurant is usually serving a menu that is foreign to them.

â┚¬Å”Everybody wants turkey,â┚¬Â says Joseph. â┚¬Å”So here's a restaurant cooking turkey that normally doesn't and they are cooking not just one, but several.â┚¬Â
When dining out for Christmas, people usually take the leisure attitude of wanting to linger, so restaurants tend to get backed up. Know that, even with a reservation, you're in for a wait, so â┚¬Å”chill out, knowing what you're in for.â┚¬Â On the same token, the restaurant will be busy, so the staff will have a â┚¬Å”get â┚¬Ëœem in, get â┚¬Ëœem outâ┚¬Â attitude.

Above all, Joseph pleads, â┚¬Å”Don't start getting nasty with the people thereâ┚¬â€they're working on Christmas! Be nice to them.â┚¬Â

As for his own holidays, Joseph will be vacationing in London. He's learned that the entire country shuts down on Christmas dayâ┚¬â€no shops open, no restaurants open, everything is closed. He is expecting to have his Christmas dinner in a hotel dining roomâ┚¬Â¦where you can bet he will be cordial to the staff.