He is an outsider and I still think he seems genuinely ignorant of the attitude within the culinary community, and at least initially, of his own. You seem to think it's put-on, I don't know, perhaps it is.

Once again, it comes to the context.

If David Foster Wallace chose to venture down to the State Fair on his own dime to write his own essay about his own thing, his own conclusions in his own essay are entirely appropriate. HOWEVER, when you've been commissioned as a journalist to cover an event, your job is to cease to be an outsider. The goal of writing an article is to not only eliminate your own ignorance but work to dispel the ignorance of your readers.

Here's David Karp on mangosteens, exactly thirteen months previously. Read that, you learn some stuff about mangosteens. Read David Foster Wallace, and you learn some stuff about David Foster Wallace.

I don't give a shit about David Foster Wallace. If I'm to "consider the lobster" you'd best tell me about the lobster, not about what an asshole I am for eating one.

I've heard that "going off the rails" was his thing. It isn't mine. Slow Food, farm-to-table is about food and our relationship with it, and about the inherent advantages of preparing food with care. This article is about not preparing food. As far as anger with the editors, remember -

I canceled my subscription over this piece.