Marilyn Hagerty, Granny Who Wrote Infamous Olive Garden Review, Is Coming Out With a Book!

Marilyn Hagerty, if you don't remember, is the 85-year-old Grand Forks Herald restaurant critic whose Olive Garden review went viral because of the snarky hipsters who pointed at it to show how unhip she was. Backlash against the snark quickly ensued and many came to her defense, including Anthony Bourdain, who not only said this to his Twitter followers “Very much enjoying watching Internet sensation Marilyn Hagerty triumph over the snarkologists (myself included),” but also offered her a book deal.

Now the book cover has been revealed and the tome of over 200 reviews from her 50-year career (which is described to span from “Red Lobster to Le Bernadin”) is on pre-order.

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Bourdain describes the book as “a history of American dining–in the vast spaces between the jaded palates and professional snarkologists of the privileged coasts–as told by one hard working small city journalist. . . . We watch American dining change over time, in baby steps. Traditional regional Scandinavian giving way to big chains, first iterations of sushi, early efforts at hipster chic. Part Fargo, part Lake Woebegone. It's the antidote to snark. This book kills cynics dead.”

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Edwin Goei

Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.

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