The Sun-Times's Pat Bruno Could Care Less About Anonymity, Appears on 'Throwdown With Bobby Flay'
Regular readers of Chicago food media are familiar with Pat Bruno, the Sun-Times's head restaurant critic. We've spent a lot of time on this blog tearing into the guy, for better or for worse, but if there's one thing with which we can credit him, it's this: He knows his old-Chicago Italian food . If you wake up one day and think to yourself, "Self, there is nothing I want more in this world than meatballs buried in redsauce and a nice deep-dish pie," Bruno is your man. Heck, the dude has been contributing to Pizza Today magazine since 1975.
A recent comment on the PizzaMaking.com message board wonders whether it's not Pat Bruno himself who started the (incorrect) trend of the inclusion of cornmeal in deep-dish pizza recipes. The poster also acknowledges, though, that it could have been another guy — one Pasquale Bruno , who appeared as a judge on the December 21 episode of "Throwdown! With Bobby Flay," when the show visits Lou Malnati's Pizzeria. When Pasquale Bruno is introducing himself, he says "I write a monthly column for Pizza Today , and I've traveled halfway around the world showing people how to make pizza."
Pat Bruno ... Pasquale Bruno... there's something here, but I'm not quite putting my finger on it. Could it be that the head restaurant reviewer for a major metropolitan newspaper decided to blow his anonymity out of the water by appearing on a highly-rated nationally-aired television show featuring the signature dish of his hometown, with his cover being only the inversion of his highly recognizable name? [Update: Holy crap, y'all, I'm not sure why I heard this as an inverted name, but he just flat-out uses his real one! Pasquale Bruno, a.k.a. Pat. Not even trying!]
No. That can't be possible. It can't be the case that there is someone that completely and utterly dismissive of his role as a nominal arbiter of restaurant quality, and the trust of his readership. That cannot possibly be the case.
At the end of the show, Bobby Flay turns to the judges — this Mr. Pasquale and charismatic former Chicago Bear Glen Kozlowski — and says "you guys are the best judges we've ever had... you guys should do this for a living."
Video (the only video you'll find, as far as I can tell) after the jump.
The judges introduce themselves:
The judging itself (watch for when Bruno/Pasquale has cheese fall out of his mouth!):
Bonus! A high-res image of Bruno is on the front page of the Lou Malnati's website.
[Major hat tips to LTHForum and My Boyfriend]
By daniel on 01/15/2009 at 12:39 PM
By Mike Gebert on 01/15/2009 at 11:00 AM