Then there’s Tesar, the former “Top Chef’ contestant who has practically made it his mission to attack Brenner on his Facebook and Twitter pages. Their relationship is beyond complicated. Tesar’s career stretches back to New York, where he worked with Anthony Bourdain (and starred in Bourdain’s bestseller “Kitchen Confidential” under the pseudonym “Jimmy Sears”). Brenner has ripped at least two of Bourdain’s books in print, including his “Les Halles Cookbook.” Bourdain has ripped Brenner right back.
Tesar, like Bourdain, has a brash style that he says is influenced by such comedians and shock jocks as Lenny Bruce and Howard Stern. Tesar gave his best Sternlike performance on July 16, when he received what he viewed as a lackluster three-star review of Knife, which has since landed on best-of lists by Eater Dallas and Esquire magazine.
Before even reading her review, Tesar took to social media, both publicly and privately to Brenner, to direct invective at the critic. (One private message he sent to Brenner via Facebook: “I am going to make sure you understand how crazy you are.”) It wasn’t the first time Tesar had tangled with her. He had previously bent her ear on the phone and ridiculed her online, calling her “probably one of the worst food critics I’ve ever seen in my entire life.”
Still, at the behest of friends, Tesar decided to delete his public knee-jerk condemnations of Brenner on the night of the review. His restraint didn’t last long.
“I woke up at 3:50 [a.m.] with a voice in my mind going, ‘You’re a chef, and you’re a man,’” Tesar says. “You need to do this for your soul. ... I was like, ‘F--- you, Leslie Brenner. Your reviews are self-serving.’ I can’t even remember the quote.” Then he went back to bed.
When he woke up, the dining world in Dallas had changed. Tesar’s 22-word tweet had begun its viral sweep across the Internet. It was a schoolyard brawl, and food writers across the country gathered to watch, fascinated by this rare public spat. A chef was reviewing the reviewer, and it was brutal.
Tesar believed then and believes now that Brenner’s middling star rating, if not the Knife review itself, was payback. Payback for his public criticisms, for his private rants, maybe even for his relationship with Bourdain. (He even recently sent a scathing letter to the paper’s top editor, Mong.)
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