Some of his complaints are remarkably easy to pick apart. He notes that national critics "used to write starry-eyed reports" about Chicago, but no longer. I suppose he's right if we are only talking about this calendar year, but Bon Appetit did select Chicago as the best restaurant city of 2017, as did Conde Nast Traveler. But he never really digs into why we should care so much about national critics in the first place. According to Kessler, only national or international critics seem to matter. He brings up the James Beard Awards, Michelin, GQ, The Washington Post and the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, but never once discusses local news outlets.