Jewish food critic Josh Ozersky, whose witty and snarky writing generally focused on his obsession with all things meat, died in Chicago last week. He was 47.
Ozersky was a food writer for Esquire magazine and a frequent contributor to other publications, including Time magazine, the Wall Street Journal and Food & Wine. He also was an author and founding editor of New York magazine’s Grub Street food blog.
Ozersky, whose wife holds dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship, commented on Jewish food as well. In the Time essays “Does Jewish food have a future?” in 2012 and “The kugel conundrum” in 2011, he questioned Jewish American food traditions.
“For the sake of nostalgia, or at most a loyalty to the past, we pretend that Jewish food is good, at least once or twice a year. But it isn’t. Why?” He went on to describe “the familiar Eastern European Jewish food that most American Jews of my generation grew up eating: dry and flavorless brisket, cooked in a salty fluid of Campbell’s beef broth and Lipton onion soup mix.”
Ozersky, who was in Chicago for the James Beard Foundation Awards, was found dead in his hotel room on May 4, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. Authorities said the autopsy was inconclusive and the final determination on the cause of death would require further testing.
Ozersky had recently moved to Portland, Oregon. — ap