And she's done pretty well for herself, locking down a book deal with Anthony Bourdain's imprint over at HarperCollins.
Fieri will come out of this much the same. OK, probably not with a Bourdain book deal (they aren't exactly best buds). But plenty of people will give him a sympathetic nod, buying the idea that he was treated unfairly.
Was he? Not really. It certainly was a scathing review delivered in a sucker punch fashion. But I don't buy the argument that Wells shouldn't have reviewed it, either because the restaurant was so bad it didn't warrant a review, or because the very nature of the place (and the man behind it) places it outside the league of "real" restaurants that merit reviews.
To accept those arguments is to accept that the food served to Average Joes and Janes isn't worthy of criticism, and that it shouldn't be held to higher standards. Fieri has built his career touting the foods of everyday America. If that's what he's going to serve in his restaurant, it seems only fair that he be held to answer for the quality of that food.
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J.M. Hirsch is the AP's Food Editor. Follow him to great eats on Twitter at http://twitter.com/JM_Hirsch or email him at jhirsch(at)ap.org.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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