Joshua Ozersky

Joshua Ozersky (born August 22, 1967) is an American food writer and historian. He first came to prominence as a founding editor of New York magazine's food blog, Grub Street, for which he received a James Beard Foundation Award (with co-editor Daniel Maurer) in 2008.^[1] He is the author of several books, including "The Hamburger: A History" (2008 ISBN 0-300-11758-2), "Colonel Sanders and the American Dream" (2003 ISBN 0292723822) and "Archie Bunker's America: TV in an Era of Change, 1968–1978" (March 2003 ISBN 0-8093-2507-1). He is currently Editor-at-Large for Esquire, writing about food and restaurants. He also writes frequently for The Wall Street Journal, Food & Wine, and The New York Observer, among other places. Although read primarily as a food writer, he has said in numerous public appearances that he disliked "food writing" as such, and that his strongest influences have been G.K. Chesterton, Thomas Babington Macaulay, and A.J. Liebling.^[2][3]

Early life and background

Ozersky was born in Miami, Florida in 1967. He moved to Atlantic City, New Jersey in 1979 when his father, the painter David Ozersky, got a job as a stage technician in the first of the area's casino-hotels, Resorts International. He attended Atlantic City High School and Rutgers University. His mother, Anita Ozersky, died suddenly when he was 14 years of age. Of his interest in food, he has said in interviews, "I was a friendless child, and a solitary and celibate teenager ... my father and I only spoke about movies and food, and food far more than movies. He was a great gastronome and taught me to self-medicate my loneliness with steaks and sausages."^[4] He later attended New York University's School of Journalism and the University of Notre Dame,^[5] where he received a Ph.D. (ABD) in American History.

Career

After graduating from Rutgers University in 1989, Ozersky wrote for several publications on media and cultural history topics, most frequently in Tikkun. From 1990 to 1993 he wrote two weekly columns for the West Side Spirit, a free weekly newspaper in New York City: a semi-humorous "TV Picks" column and a cheap-eats column called "The Impoverished Gourmand" under the name "Casper Gutman." Many consider this guise, which was loosely based on the character from The Maltese Falcon, as a forerunner of "Mr. Cutlets," his later fictive persona. In the mid-1990s, he wrote for Suck.com under the name "The Boob", as well as for Newsday, where he frequently contributed essays on culture and media. His book "Archie Bunker's America: TV in an Era of Change" (2003 ISBN 0-8093-2507-1), a cultural history of television programming, received a disappointing critical reception. Although his ambition at this time was to establish himself as a public intellectual after the example of his mentors, Neil Postman and Mark Crispin Miller, he eventually turned to food writing full-time with the publication of his 2003 book "Meat Me in Manhattan" (ISBN 0-9703125-7-1). 2008's "The Hamburger: A History" (ISBN 0-300-11758-2) was a critical success, receiving positive reviews in publications on both sides of the Atlantic, including The Economist,^[6] The Times,^[7] The Observer,^[8] and Forbes.^[9]

Subsequent to "Meat Me in Manhattan"'s publication, Ozersky was a contributing restaurant critic for Newsday (2004–2006), and wrote regularly for the website Slashfood and the New York Law Journal. He became the founding editor of New York food blog Grub Street,^[10] a position he held until 2008, when he moved over to Citysearch as National Restaurant Editor. There he ran a daily food blog on the model of Grub Street called The Feedbag, along with his regular Citysearch duties.^[11] He left in 2009 to start Ozersky.TV, a venture with Eater founder Ben Leventhal, featuring short films about restaurants and cooking, which debuted in July 2010.^[12] He wrote the "Taste of America" column for Time from 2010 to 2012. Both Ozersky TV, "Taste of America," and his work in the The Wall Street Journal have been nominated for James Beard Awards. Essays by Ozersky have also been included in "The Best Food Writing" anthologies in 2009, 2012, and 2014.

In 2010, Ozersky was criticized by Robert Sietsema^[13] for writing about his wedding in Time without disclosing that the chefs who participated donated the food as wedding gifts.^[14] Ozersky defended himself, saying that the chefs involved were among his closest friends, and that the most prominent of them, Michael White, had his daughter in the wedding party as a flower girl.^[15]

Meatopia

Ozersky is the founder of Meatopia, a large meat-centric outdoor culinary event, which has been held in New York City for the past nine years. In 2013 Meatopia events were held in London, England and San Antonio, Texas, with more cities planned for 2014. Meatopia did not hold an event in 2013 in New York City. Each year has had a different theme such as "Slaughter of the Innocent" (baby animals), "Lamb Bam Thank You M'aam" (whole lambs), and, most recently (NYC 2012), "City of Meat," in which the festival was divided up into multiple "neighborhoods" such as Offalwood, Carcass Hill, and Beaktown. Meatopia has been called "a glorious city of meat" by the Huffington Post^[16] and "a bacchanal of pork, beef, lamb, chicken, duck, turkey and quail" by the New York Times.^[17]

Bibliography

• "Colonel Sanders and the American Dream" May 2013 (ISBN 0292723822)
• "The Hamburger: A History" May 2009 (ISBN 0-300-11758-2)
• "Meat Me in Manhattan: A Carnivore's Guide to New York" October 2003 (ISBN 0-9703125-7-1)
• "Zagat Long Island Restaurants 2005–06" May 2005 (ISBN 978-1-57006-714-3)
• "Readings for the 21st Century: Tomorrow's Issue for Today's Students / Edition 3" August 1996 (ISBN 978-0-205-19803-0)
• "Aquarius Super Day-by-Day Horoscope" 1990
• "Archie Bunker's America: TV in an Era of Change 1968–1978" March 2003 (ISBN 0-8093-2507-1)

Footnotes

External links

• Official Ozersky.TV
• Meatopia.org