Obituaries

Longtime Sun-Times Reviewer Pat Bruno Dies at 78

The Sun-Times is reporting that Pasquale “Pat” Bruno, who reviewed restaurants for the paper for more than a quarter of a century before being let go as a freelancer in 2011, died Tuesday night of cancer at age 78. Bruno had written about his cancer in an article for the Washington Post in October 2011, saying that it was diagnosed in late 2009 and that it may be due to eating foods that are infected with a virus. Bruno was a controversial figure in recent years among watchers of the food sections in major media, but his successor as the paper’s freelance chief reviewer, Michael Nagrant, paid tribute to Bruno’s early years in this 2010 conversation, saying “There was a time when he was actually ferreting out the fringes, the far off Mexican spot or the mom and pop Italian joint that opened in a bad neighborhood. He was actually kind of a treasure in the mid eighties.” Besides reviewing, he marketed pizza equipment and was the author of five books including The Great Chicago-Style Pizza Cookbook (1983), Italian Light and Easy (1993), The Ultimate Pizza (1995) and The Ultimate Pasta Cookbook (1997). He’s survived by his wife and two daughters. [Sun-Times]

Longtime Sun-Times Reviewer Pat Bruno Dies at 78