This week, illustrious chef John Tesar said "fuck you" to Dallas Morning News critic Leslie Brenner for a review that was not all that bad. We wanted to hear his side of it.

Esquire: John, the food world is temporarily abuzz about your tweeting an eff-you at Leslie Brenner, the Dallas Morning News' restaurant critic, because she gave your new steakhouse, Knife, a three-star review. Why did you go on the warpath? It wasn't that bad a review at all.

John Tesar: My complaint with her is not about the review; it's about the history. Outsiders really don't understand the dynamic between her and Dallas chefs. You see that in the fact that the local reaction is a lot more sympathetic than the outside reaction, which was a lot greater.

I mean, you can understand that. I mean, no matter what the context, you don't see chefs cursing out a critic, especially after a three-star review.

It's just this huge taboo, you know. You don't say "fuck you" to anybody. It was something of a Lenny Bruce moment.

ESQ: But why did you go on the warpath? Some of the stuff she said, like the temperature of the steak, was pretty objective. It's not like she was taking cheap shots. It didn't seem that way to me.

JT: There's a lot of misunderstanding about what rare and medium rare means. The meat turns an exact color at a particular temperature; I think sometimes people, including critics, don't really know what to expect. But this wasn't about that. This was being picky so as not to have to give John Tesar a pat on the back. So many people have said to me, since yesterday, "don't worry, the food is amazing." But she went out of her way to slam my pastry chef and my steaks.

The fact is that Leslie Brenner is a universally mean, bitter person. Because she is so powerful, a lot of chefs are too young or too afraid to say that. But I feel that I have an obligation, based on my platform, to be a defender of our industry. She has the power to make or break somebody and she uses it to advance her own agenda.

JT: I will say that this whole thing points out just how influential the local newspaper critic can be, even now. So many cities are one-paper towns, and that critic is disproportionately powerful as a result.

Nobody can refute her. There is no other side. The Dallas Observer came out that day and it was a pretty good review. It stressed me that this was one of the only places anywhere where you can come in an have a great steak for $25. I feel that she [Brenner] chose to ignore that. And I think the reason is that she is an evil, bitter dictator. She's out to anoint young chefs, who are her creations; the established Dallas chefs like Dean Fearing, Steven Pyles, myself, some others – we get demoted, and it's just extremely obvious why. It's a throwback to the days in New York when Gael Greene would get smitten with these young guys like Bobby Flay or Matthew Kenney. I'm the old man now, and I'm removed emotionally from that whole thing.

I take her criticisms seriously; we do have to work at the consistency of the temperatures. That's a challenge in every steakhouse. Not everything she said was false. But she has an ax to grind. They'll say, "Tesar just has sour grapes, he's crazy, he's too passionate!" But I care. I care about everything.

ESQ: I know, but, John! Did you ever think you care too much? You're still steaming because she only gave your last restaurant, Spoon, four stars instead of five. I feel like you are something of a raw nerve; you care too much. You wear your heart on your sleeve. Your life would be a lot easier if you were a little more removed, more cynical. The restaurant is a huge success, it's full every night. Why take this to heart? I'm friends with you and I admire you as a chef, and even I think it's kind of weird.

JT: OK, let's talk about Spoon. She went in there and gave it a so-so four-star review. if you read the review, at the bottom she says that it's a provisional four stars. She let it hang on the edge of three stars! And then the next day she went on or paragraph after paragraph about how she went truffle hunting with her father as a girl, and she knows truffles, and just spent so much time ripping me and the restaurant. And before that, she went to the Commissary, and she just ripped the shit out of it, gave it two stars. It was a hamburger joint! I told her, "I don't think you know what you're talking about."

I think we have a weird relationship. It's like Mommy and Daddy issues. She's not what I want in a critic and I'm not what she wants in a chef. I feel like I'm the American ice skater and she's the Russian judge; I am starting a point behind. And a lot of Dallas chefs feel that way. She was so taken aback by my desserts. But Knife isn't a traditional steakhouse. We aren't looking to serve cheesecake. I know you don't like the desserts either.

ESQ: It's true, I hate those kind of elaborate desserts. I just hate them.

JT: I understand that, but not everybody feels that way. There are things that everybody knows you hate as a critic. You hate tweezer food. You hate savory desserts. You hate this, you hate that. But you aren't writing just for yourself, or about me. You are supposed to be writing for the public, and maybe they feel different, maybe they want a reinvented steakhouse, something they haven't seen before.

ESQ: Isn't it possible that maybe Leslie Brenner just didn't see it that way? Why does it have to be that she's out to get you?

JT: I don't know. It's some kind of personal thing with her. And I am calling her out on it.

Josh Ozersky Josh Ozersky was Esquire's Food Correspondent and a regular contributor to Esquire.com.

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