Food Writer Josh Ozersky Dies At 47

Ozersky at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino's Meatopia earlier this year, which he curated

Food writer, early food blogger and Meatopia creator Josh Ozersky died today in Chicago. He was 47.

According to the NY Times' Pete Wells, "He died in Chicago, where he had traveled from his home in NY to attend the James Beard Foundation awards. An autopsy is set for tomorrow." And Kevin Pang added, "Josh Ozersky was found dead at 11:40am at 521 N. Rush St., which is the Conrad Chicago hotel."

According to the Times, "Mr. Ozersky’s friends at the ceremony said they had last seen him at a karaoke lounge about 4 a.m."

Ozersky wrote for the West Side Spirit, Newsday and other publications before founding New York Magazine's Grub Street blog. He left to become restaurant editor of Citysearch and also started his own blog, The Feedbag. In the Times obituary, Wells writes, "Mr. Ozersky — he used pseudonyms like Casper Gutman and Mr. Cutlets early in his career — emerged about a decade ago, using his own name, as one of the most forceful food writers in New York." He also wrote a number of books, Meat Me In Manhattan (as Mr. Cutlets), Colonel Sanders and the American Dream and The Hamburger: A History.

The James Beard Awards were tonight; Pang Tweeted, "My food writing colleagues sitting around the press room in shock over Ozersky. Many aren't staying for party. Not in a celebratory mood."

In 2009, Ozersky famously announced he had gout, aka "the disease of kings", but promised, "I won't be altering my lifestyle at all, and that you can continue to expect the up-to-the-minute coverage of the city's dining scene that only total bodily dedication can bring."

And when the Post was outraged about an $18 carrot entree in 2012, Ozersky offered a typically colorful quote, "Such is the perversity of vegetarians — you can’t tell whether it’s a gift or an insult. My favorite meat is lamb fat. My philosophy is that the fat is the meat and the meat is the vegetable."

He also received criticism for not disclosing that his wedding was catered for free by celebrity chefs, after describing the phenomenal fare for Time.

More recently Ozersky was writing for Esquire. In his last piece, he gives advice about bacon, "Bacon is a weirdly personal taste, possibly more so than any other food... I've eaten bacon from commodity pigs that made me happier than bacon from purebred Duroc or Berkshire hogs. I've eaten jowl bacon that was better than belly bacon. Bacon cares not for your ideals, aspirations, or social standing. It is a straight-up fetish object, and as such not subject to higher brain function."

In an interview with Vice, Ozersky proclaimed, "Every aspect of my life is utterly immersed and overflowing with the juice of literature and the love of food."

A must-read: His 2013 essay for Saveur, about his father's struggles as an artist and his love of food: "My father's paintings of chefs, one of his favorite subjects, hung in our house when I was growing up. They were much happier than his other paintings, whose themes included dead gangsters, the Holocaust, and junkies."