MYSTERY SOLVED

Frank Bruni Revealed!

New York Times food critic leaves the paper, shows his face.

Frank Bruni, the New York Times' restaurant reviewer who has dined in anonymity for years, revealed his face this week in an interview with Publishers Weekly. Bruni will be leaving the New York Times on August 20 (his last review will run August 19) in order to promote his forthcoming memoir, Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater. Bruni told PW that he decided to write his memoirs because "I’ve read a lot of gauzy and romantic food-related memoirs....For the most part, people’s relationships to food were much more difficult [than those portrayals], were more like mine. I felt that I hadn’t encountered my story anywhere." During his tenure at the Times, Bruni has kept his face under wraps to maintain the integrity of his dining experiences and his reviews. So what does this showing of his face mean for Bruni's future? Grub Street suggests "It is almost inconceivable that he would allow a photo of himself to be published, the man unmasked at the eleventh hour, unless he'd concluded eating in his official capacity of restaurant critic."