Jonathan Gold was the first food critic ever to win the Pulitzer Prize for dining reviews. These are the reviews he won for: https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/jonathan-gold (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.. It wouldn’t hurt you to read four or five of these, but we’ll discuss just two in class and in this RQ: “The Great White Duck” and “The Devil’s Own Steak House”

Step 1:

Read them each once through to get a feel for their content and for Gold’s prizewinning style (what can you steal?). Write in a few sentences: What is the thesis of each? (I.e. does Gold like the place or not, and why?)

Step 2:

 Then read the two articles a second time on a “treasure hunt.”

Treasure Hunt Part 1:

By quoting or paraphrasing from “The Great White Duck” and “The Devil’s Own Steak House,” identify when Gold uses five (5) or more of these ten (11) techniques we’ve already covered:

1. Ethos: Gold shows his personality
2. They say, I say: Gold responds to other people's assumptions or arguments about these types of restaurants 
3. Tone: When Gold switches from one mood to another
4. Comparisons between the foods Gold’s reviewing and other foods
5. Similes or metaphors
6. Colorful Adjectives (name 3)
7. Precise Nouns (name 3)
8. Action Verbs (name 3)
9. Periodic sentence
10. Cumulative sentence
11. Short sentences (find 3)

Pick one of the five items you found, above and, in a few sentences or a short paragraph, explain how Gold uses it to convince/entertain/immerse us. What is it about us or him or the message or our culture that helps it be convincing?

Step 3:

Treasure Hunt Part 2

Here are a few items we haven’t covered yet in class. Pick two of these. Quote or paraphrase an example of each, then, in at least a few sentences each, explain how Gold uses them to convince/entertain/immerse us.

1. References to contemporary cultural events outside the restaurant
2. In-Depth Knowledge of Dish
3. Dialogue
4. Setting (ambience/atmosphere)
5. Allusions