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Michael Bauer

Legendary restaurant critic who spent 32 years as food editor and restaurant critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, creator of its Top 100 Restaurants list.

Oct 9, 2026

27:28
Wow
27:28
...
27:29
I bought a, kind of a fat suit, a Santa fat suit, and borrowed clothes, so I had changed my body type, um, and did the restaurant review that way.
27:38
And also because I knew I have a distinctive voice, I brought someone and said, "Okay, we're gonna do the tasting menu, but I'm not gonna speak, so you're gonna do all the talking." Um, and so, you know, he did all the talking.
27:52
Um, it was, and it was interesting.
27:53
And, you know, I was always changing glasses, changing hair.
27:58
Um, back when we were at a conference in Washington, D.C., we had someone from the CIA come in and do a talk on, you know, disguise and how you disguise yourself.
32:05
Did you just clench your teeth and wait for the phone to ring? Like, how, what was the reaction sometimes? Did you, were, was there, were there moments of dread, or that's just what you did?

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