Dinner with The Post’s food critic
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 16 October 2025
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
For over a quarter-century, Tom Sietsema has eaten at and reviewed thousands of restaurants. Now, he’s hanging up his fork and knife. Today, we dip into our archives and bring you a delightful night out at a restaurant with The Post’s longtime beloved food critic. He talks about his love for the theater of dining out, and why he cares so much about guiding readers toward truly delicious food.
Today’s show was produced by Ariel Plotnick. It was edited by Maggie Penman and mixed by Sam Bair.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | America is changing. And so is the world. |
| 0:04.4 | But what's happening in America isn't just the cause of global upheaval. |
| 0:08.6 | It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere. |
| 0:12.4 | I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C. |
| 0:14.6 | I'm Tristan Redman in London, and this is the global story. |
| 0:18.8 | Every weekday will bring you a story from this intersection, where the world and America meet. |
| 0:24.3 | Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:31.7 | After 26 years on the job, the post-food critic Tom Sitsima is hanging up his knife and fork. For years, |
| 0:40.2 | he's dined incognito. He was so intent on keeping his identity hidden from restaurant owners |
| 0:45.7 | that he didn't even let family post photos of him. But earlier this month, as he announced |
| 0:51.2 | his retirement, he showed his face online for the first time. |
| 0:55.6 | Now, in the spirit of celebrating his illustrious and delicious career, we wanted to re-air |
| 1:01.8 | this great episode from late 2024, when Tom takes Post Report's host Martine Powers out to dinner. |
| 1:09.3 | The episode was a celebration of his 25th anniversary at The Post, and it's a fascinating |
| 1:14.5 | behind-the-scenes look at the life of a professional food critic. Tom talks about his |
| 1:19.7 | favorite parts of dining out, some of his most savage reviews, and how we can all be better |
| 1:25.1 | diners. Okay, here's the show. |
| 1:28.8 | Thank you so much. |
| 1:29.8 | Cheers. |
| 1:31.8 | Cheers. |
| 1:33.1 | Can I just say happy holidays? |
| 1:36.6 | Great to meet both of you. |
... |
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