The Instagram profile with 200,000 followers does not bear the author’s name, but it is no secret that Ian Oiver is the name behind the profile O Crítica Antigourmet – a title he now also gives to his new newsletter on GLOBO, which is sent out every Wednesday starting on the 26th (click here to sign up). “It’s a profile that guarantees confidentiality,” explains the culinary critic, known for his independent assessments of the São Paulo scene.
This estimate is justified, among other things, by the absence of pictures: neither on the fingers, nor in this report, nor in the newsletter.
– I try to focus on the text, not on myself. Anyone who searches on Google will find my face, but I don’t share my photo. This helps me navigate between restaurants without attracting attention. I don’t hide, but I don’t reveal myself – says Ian, 36, who regards Jonathan Gould and François Simon as authorities in culinary criticism, and Machado de Assis and Proust as “almost inaccessible paragons” of style.
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GLOBO’s newsletter editor, Emiliano Orbem, highlights that all visits to restaurants are paid for by the newspaper and are made without any prior notice.
“We learned about Ian’s work on networking and realized it would be a great opportunity to have him among our authors, expanding our proposition to offer in-depth approaches to specific audiences,” says Emiliano. – After analyzing international references, we came up with a newsletter model that combines artistic reviews of popular restaurants, which the Antigourmet Critic audience already knows, with what we call “São Paulo’s culinary heritage”: bar food, pizzerias, bakeries, parmigiana, and even root sausages.
From letters to gastronomy
Ian grew up in the western region of São Paulo and studied literature at the University of the South Pacific. While in college, he began teaching Portuguese language classes in courses, a job he continues to this day, which involves ending a conversation when a student tries to bring up the topic of his work as a food critic.
— Students know everything, they talk about the lives of all teachers, but that’s something I try to leave out the door. Even if it’s just a matter of time: I have a lot of material to offer.
With his first teaching salary in his pocket, Ian began exploring restaurants he had previously only admired from afar. Curiosity turned into study: He graduated from Le Cordon Bleu, completed the Postgraduate Degree in Culinary Arts composed of PUC-RS and completed the WSET course (Level 3), and the International Certificate in Spirits, from Enocultura. In the process, the magazine Crítica Antigourmet was born, a counterpoint to the “gourmet” wave that spread across all menus.
– There are gourmet brigadero products that cost three times the expected price because they come with beautiful packaging and a small story, with no impact on the flavor or quality. The idea is to be against that.
Today, Ian divides his time between classes, texts and courses he has created, such as the Sensory in Practice course, through which he teaches the public how to evaluate food and drink more consciously. He also leads Critic Trips, which have taken groups to Europe and Japan – always with the same suggestion: to discuss the pleasures of eating and drinking without affectation, with technique and curiosity.
– Through this space at GLOBO, I hope I can increase the reach of what I already do – he says. – I don’t always put myself on the side of the restaurant, but on the side of the audience, the people who literally save the entire month to eat and systematically receive food that is of lower quality than the price they charge.