Food Critic

It was the shower hose that clinched it. A passage describing a male character's genitalia as "leaping around like a shower hose dropped in an empty bath" helped British food critic Giles Coren win the 13th annual Bad Sex in Fiction award Thursday for his debut novel, "Winkler." The prize, presented by Britain's Literary Review magazine, aims to "draw attention to the crude, tasteless, often perfunctory use of redundant passages of sexual description in the modern novel."

Robert Finigan, who elevated wine criticism in the early 1970s with an influential newsletter that was notable for its authoritative and unvarnished appraisals, died Oct. 1 at his San Francisco home. He was 68. His wife, Suzanne, said the cause of death has not been determined. Finigan began publishing Robert Finigan's Private Guide to Wines in 1972 when wine critics generally were not known for their independence. His newsletter was a sharp departure, offering bracingly honest evaluations not only of fine European but also emerging California wines, of which he was an early and enthusiastic champion.

If Max Jacobson wants to be a food critic, fine. But do we need three paragraphs of his social philosophy in his review (Valley Life, June 10) of Delmonico's restaurant? Samples: " . . . overflowing with affluence . . . all the Porsches and Jaguars pulling up to the valet parking . . . one excess no one seems to mind . . . " Maybe you should put his column on the editorial page, if it goes far enough left! HARRIET PART Encino

1: Start your August on a high note with a movie and martini night at Station Hollywood — an outdoor venue at the W Hotel in Hollywood. Tonight you can catch the '80s classic "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" on the 35-foot movie screen. Complimentary manicures included. Link: http://www.stationhollywood.com/about.html 2: Hot temperatures call for cool events in air conditioned spots — like Japanese artist Tomoko Sawada's photography show at the Rose Gallery at Bergamot Station.

Even though El Parian is only a few blocks from L.A. Live, the Mexican restaurant might as well be in another country for many of the patrons of downtown's sports and entertainment hub. Perhaps best known for its birria , a roasted goat in broth, El Parian also serves a celebrated carne asada, both dishes accompanied by hot, homemade tortillas. But if you're catching a Lakers game at Staples Center or a Los Angeles Film Festival movie at the new Regal Cinemas Stadium 14, the preferred south-of-the-border stop is typically Rosa Mexicano, the Los Angeles outpost of a New York-based group of nine restaurants serving (in all seriousness)

Egon Ronay English food critic wrote restaurant guides Egon Ronay, 94, an English food critic whose eponymous restaurant guides helped Britain embrace fine dining after years of postwar austerity, died Saturday at his home west of London after a short illness, said family friend Nick Ross. Born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1915, Ronay was the son of a prosperous restaurant owner whose business was ruined by World War II. Ronay left communist Hungary for Britain in 1946.

Diogenes can put away his lantern. His honest man's a woman! Compliments to the Food Critic ("Blech!: The 10 Most Overrated Menu Items," by Ruth Reichl, May 3). I'll queue up behind Reichl's recommendations anytime. Now, if only we can have William Wilson write "Yuck!: The 10 Most Overrated Paintings." L. MOORE Covina

As avid food lovers, we have never read a review of restaurants where the reviewer was more concerned with the quality of the doggie bags than the quality of the actual meal ("Steak Houses: The Fat and the Lean," by Ruth Reichl, Dec. 22). Reichl's credentials and priorities are suspect, as she seems hell-bent on getting two meals for the price of one. It's absurd to expect anyone to take Reichl seriously as a food critic. MARVIN KATZ, LINZI GLASS Los Angeles

Alan Hooker of Ojai, founder of the award-winning Ranch House restaurant in Ojai who helped introduce the lighter fare that came to represent California cuisine, has died in an Ojai convalescent home. He was 90. Hooker was a successful jazz pianist in 1949 when he and his wife, the former Helen Hanna Miles, gave away their possessions and headed West from Ohio to join Jiddu Krishnamurti, the late philosopher who taught at Ojai. "I would literally wake up in the night in Ohio and say, 'Ojai!

Reichl's pompous and arrogant statements condemning any location out of the Westside are evident. For example, Pasadena "doesn't seem to support any real culinary innovation." Is Fino in Torrance "worth the trip? Probably not." Fresco in Glendale: " . . . the effect is to make you feel that you're in some small town (well, actually, you are)." Sorrento Grille in Laguna Beach: "Orange County, after all, is the place that only yesterday prided itself on offering footstools and roses to the ladies . . . and enormous bills to the gentlemen."

Los Angeles Times restaurant critic S. Irene Virbila ducked into Red Medicine, a new Beverly Hills restaurant, for some modern Vietnamese food the other night, but got nothing to eat. Instead, she was outed and ousted, her party turned away, her picture snapped and critic's anonymity shredded by the restaurateur himself. "I always knew at some point a blogger or somebody would take a secret photo. But I never expected that a restaurateur would stick a camera in my face," Virbila said Wednesday.

You might think people in the restaurant business would enjoy watching someone make sausage. But what's been going on at L.A. City Hall, where a food fight has broken out over the awarding of LAX restaurant concessions, has been sheer agony for some of the city's most famous chefs. "It seems like a simple thing to do," Nancy Silverton of Pizzeria Mozza said during a break in the brawl Monday. "Why can't they just get it done?" Just get it done? Oh, sweetheart. Welcome to City Hall, where council members couldn't make a pizza together without subcommittee hearings, visits from lobbyists, an environmental impact report, an ethics investigation and half a dozen lawsuits over the choice of toppings.

Egon Ronay English food critic wrote restaurant guides Egon Ronay, 94, an English food critic whose eponymous restaurant guides helped Britain embrace fine dining after years of postwar austerity, died Saturday at his home west of London after a short illness, said family friend Nick Ross. Born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1915, Ronay was the son of a prosperous restaurant owner whose business was ruined by World War II. Ronay left communist Hungary for Britain in 1946.

Even though El Parian is only a few blocks from L.A. Live, the Mexican restaurant might as well be in another country for many of the patrons of downtown's sports and entertainment hub. Perhaps best known for its birria , a roasted goat in broth, El Parian also serves a celebrated carne asada, both dishes accompanied by hot, homemade tortillas. But if you're catching a Lakers game at Staples Center or a Los Angeles Film Festival movie at the new Regal Cinemas Stadium 14, the preferred south-of-the-border stop is typically Rosa Mexicano, the Los Angeles outpost of a New York-based group of nine restaurants serving (in all seriousness)

GORDON Ramsay, the chef and TV kitchen taskmaster, had 55 couples booked for dinner one night last week and three new dishes to try out. The third season of "Hell's Kitchen," his trial-by-fire reality show, premieres Monday on Fox; his "Kitchen Nightmares" will debut in the U.S. later this year. He is shopping for a house in Beverly Hills or the Hollywood Hills or Malibu. Much profanity was omitted from this interview. What's the difference between running a kitchen and running a TV show?

It was the shower hose that clinched it. A passage describing a male character's genitalia as "leaping around like a shower hose dropped in an empty bath" helped British food critic Giles Coren win the 13th annual Bad Sex in Fiction award Thursday for his debut novel, "Winkler." The prize, presented by Britain's Literary Review magazine, aims to "draw attention to the crude, tasteless, often perfunctory use of redundant passages of sexual description in the modern novel."

Regarding Ruth Reichl's review of L'Orangerie (May 12): I was both outraged and saddened at the vicious attack on this fine establishment. And no, I do not have friends at L'Orangerie. This is not a letter to defend its food. It is a letter about fairness and ethics. Having read Reichl's reviews for the past couple of years, her blatant favoritism toward certain restaurants and total lack of sensitivity with regard to the hard-working, dedicated staffs at others has forced me to stop reading all reviews from The Times.

A restaurant's reputation is all it has. You cannot buy a reputation. You cannot get a reputation by paying for advertising. We made our reputation years ago through long, hard work and excellent word-of-mouth. What I have done in Los Angeles represents 30 years of my work. I do not believe any one food critic can be an expert in all cuisines. Each is different. It takes years of research and education to become an expert in the food of one particular country.

Question: What qualifications does one need to become a food critic other than the desire to be paid to eat at fancy restaurants? Tom Gibson Redondo Beach Virbila: I think you have to have a curiosity about all kinds of foods. It would be hard to be a restaurant critic if you were a vegetarian, say, or someone who didn't like organ meats or anything spicy. You have to find restaurants endlessly interesting and entertaining. You have to be able to write. And in L.A.

Ever since we started asking diners to rate and review restaurants 24 years ago -- in the process creating a series of bestselling guidebooks based on consumer opinion -- one group has remained a tad uneasy about our success: professional food critics. Certainly many critics recognize how pooling customer word of mouth to assess restaurants serves the dining public. But even a few knife-sharpening commentators still claim that the survey overrates many restaurants.