Raymond Sokolov (born August 1, 1941) is an American

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

who has written extensively about food. He wrote the "Eating Out" column for ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'' weekend edition from 2006 until March 2010.

Early life and education

Sokolov grew up in Detroit, and, while still in elementary school, finished 26th then 2nd in consecutive years in the National Spelling Bee in 1952 and

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a Estonian government-in-exile, government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito ...

. He attended secondary school at Cranbrook, in suburban Detroit (Bloomfield Hills), whence he graduated in 1959. After graduating from

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...

classics Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

, and spending a year as a

Fulbright Scholar The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the peopl ...

Wadham College, Oxford Wadham College ( ) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street, Oxford, Broad Street and Parks Road ...

, Sokolov spent two years back at Harvard pursuing a doctorate in classics. In 1965, he passed his orals.

Career

In 1965, Sokolov began work as foreign correspondent for ''

Newsweek Magazine ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev ...

'' in its Paris bureau. In summer 1967, he returned to the United States with ''Newsweek'' as an arts writer. In 1971, he became restaurant critic and food editor of the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', where his pieces covered the decor, lore, and politics of New York restaurants as well as the productions of their kitchens. His reviews first noted the arrival of Sichuanese and Hunanese food in North America. He was the first writer in English to notice

nouvelle cuisine Nouvelle cuisine (; 'new cuisine') is an approach to cooking and food presentation in French cuisine. In contrast to ''cuisine classique'', an older form of ''haute cuisine'', nouvelle cuisine is characterized by lighter, more delicate dishes and ...

in France. In 1975, he left the ''Times'' to pursue a career as a freelance writer from his home in Brooklyn Heights. In 1981, he became editor of Book Digest, then the founding editor of ''

'' daily Leisure and Arts page, a post he held until 2002. He continues to write about food for national publications.

Works

Sokolov has written several cookbooks, including ''The Cook's Canon: 101 Classic Recipes Everyone Should Know'', which includes recipes from the world's cuisines that Sokolov terms as being necessary to "culinary literacy", as well as brief essays. Other works include ''The Saucier's Apprentice'' (1976), a highly-regarded cookbook on the hierarchy of French sauces, ''Why We Eat What We Eat: How the Encounter between the New World and the Old Changed the Way Everyone on the Planet Eats'' (1991), and a biography of

A. J. Liebling Abbott Joseph Liebling (October 18, 1904 – December 28, 1963) was an American journalist who was closely associated with ''The New Yorker'' from 1935 until his death. His ''New York Times'' obituary called him "a critic of the daily press, a ...

, ''Wayward Reporter'' (1980). His long-running column "A Matter of Taste", on the Americas' foodways for the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Located in Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 21 interconn ...

's ''Natural History'' injected some researched facts and logical deduction into the highly fanciful traditional histories of cooking and helped lead to the revival of interest in American regional specialties. Some of the columns have been collected as ''Fading Feast: A Compendium of Disappearing American Regional Foods'' (1981).

Personal

In 1980, he married Johanna Hecht, a member of the curatorial staff of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

. He lives in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

External links

Raymond Sokolov - ''One man's meat is another's person''
an article on

cannibalism Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is also well document ...

from ''Natural History'' October 1974

Bibliography

*Collected in: ''American Food Writing: An Anthology with Classic Recipes'', ed. Molly O'Neill (Library of America, 2007) {{DEFAULTSORT:Sokolov, Raymond 1941 births Living people Harvard College alumni American food writers American male journalists The Wall Street Journal people Newsweek people Writers from Detroit Journalists from Detroit Scripps National Spelling Bee participants American cookbook writers American restaurant critics