Sam Sifton Is Out As Times Food Critic, Let The Games Begin!

After a relatively brief stint of just two years, New York Times food critic Sam Sifton announced today that he's moving on up to become the national editor of the Times (you can read Jill Abramson's full statement here). There is no word as of yet on his replacement, but at least we know he wasn't fired. Also, this means fans of reading about fine dining will, once again, get to indulge in the age old game of "restaurant critics, what are they good for?" while not checking out all those new fall openings. Let the wild speculation commence!

Every time a critic steps down things go a little differently, but there are a few things we can all pretty safely expect. Let's go over them now, so you won't get caught off guard should you get trapped in a boring media conversation:

• Odes And Ends: First up, expect some love and a little bit of hate put out there in the direction of Sifton on these here Interwebs. People (*cough*) are going to go over all of the stars he awarded, and where. Were they fair? Did he play favorites? Was he vindictive? This will be explored ad nauseam. Expect to see one or two servers suddenly appear with stories of the time that they served Sifton and he was so charming/awful. Also, expect to see at least one story about how this is great news for foodies, how he was terrible critic and how Frank Bruni (or whichever previous critic you want, we always liked Mimi Sheraton) was far better suited for the job than poor Sifty.
• Food Critic Think Pieces: Oh, there will be think pieces. Already the food press loves to talk about the role of the food critic in modern fine dining (Ruth Reichl recently had some interesting thoughts on the topic) and the Times critic is top dog in the dining domain. As such, in addition to discussions of the need for professional food critics in the age of Yelp and the new Googagat Survey, expect probing questions on the need for critics at all, how anonymous should they be, and memories of famous critics past.
• Wild Guessing: If the past is any indication the Times will hire the next food critic from within, but that doesn't mean that playing the game of 'who should be next' won't be all over the Twitters. It will. Is it time for Ruth Bourdain to become reality? For the newly svelte Brian Stetler to give up the media beat and put back on the pounds? For Pete Wells to slide down into the critics chair? Or maybe they should just bring back William Grimes? This game will only stop being played when Sifton's replacement is named. And no, you're not crazy, it is a very frivolous game.

There, now you've been warned. Also, good luck at the new gig, Sam!