A Letter from the Publisher

By John A. Meyer

"Getting paid to do what you like is almost always fun," says TIME Food Critic Mimi Sheraton. "And what I like to do most is eat. I'm especially crazy about restaurants because there is always an element of excitement about a meal: What will happen, how is it going to be?"

For her cover story this week on the growing interest in American cooking, Sheraton gave free rein to her love of dining. She traveled to a dozen cities, sampling gastronomic delights in New Orleans, Houston, Chicago, Philadelphia and Boonville, Calif. There are occasional drawbacks, of course, even to a job as appetizing as Sheraton's. "You eat a lot of terrible food," she says, "and put up with a lot of miserable service." What makes it worse is that she can't com plain without jeopardizing her anonymity.

To be sure she is not recognized by maitre d's and waiters, Sheraton never makes reservations in her own name. She also declines to be photographed fullface. "So I don't fight back, except of course in my reviews." But critics, Sheraton believes, whether of food or fashion, movies or books, "are willing to put up with the bad for the privilege of doing what they relish for a living."

Sheraton is enthusiastic about the rise of American cuisine. "It is a sign of maturity, of pride in our own traditions. When a culture is insecure, like the 19th century Russians and like ourselves until recently, it has adopted French food, or an all-purpose Continental cuisine cooked by Swiss chefs. Now Americans have become confident enough to trust their own chefs, just as they have become confident enough to trust their own fashion designers."

For this week's story, which was supervised by Senior Editor Martha Duffy, Sheraton received help from some willing gourmets. San Francisco Bureau Chief William Blaylock, who reported on the California culinary renaissance, had come there straight from that mecca of world-class cuisine, Paris. Says Blaylock: "My appreciation for simpler, 'reborn' American food emerged unhesitatingly, in large part because of my three years of wading through classic cassoulets, terrines and flaming crepes."

Reporter-Researcher Elizabeth Rudulph visited many of the dozen or more New York restaurants that qualify as new American. She also talked with specialty-food purveyors and producers, like those who supply endive and other exotica to the city's restaurants. Sums up Rudulph: "Americans are refining their palates. They are no longer completely satisfied with meals that do nothing but fill the stomach. The new American cooking can surprise the palate as well as satisfy it." Above all, enjoy it.