Prominent Valley chef Payton Curry, responding to a less-than-flattering review in Phoenix Magazine, posted a photo of Valley dining critic Gwen Ashley Walters on his Twitter feed Monday.
The chef behind Brat Haus and Taco Haus wrote, “Looking forward to thanking you in person for the review!”
How did Curry get the photo of the anonymous critic, who had reviewed Taco Haus? Apparently he simply googled her. In fact, such a search will bring up several old corporate photos of Walters.
I’ll leave it to others to discuss whether a chef’s unmasking of an anonymous critic is unethical, as I will the question of whether having photos readily available online is a mitigating factor.
What bothers me, though, is the hypocrisy of the media, in this case Phoenix New Times, which wrote a blog post today headlined, “Payton Curry Posts Photo of Food Critic on Twitter — Way to Keep It Classy, Chef.”
You see, those who have been around the Valley long enough may remember when Howard Seftel left New Times to work at the Arizona Republic, where he has become the state’s foremost dining critic.
New Times’s response? They ran Seftel’s photo. In print. And they included the caption, “Restaurant owners, clip this and save.”
Way to keep it classy, indeed.
