CRITIC BEWARE.(Mietta O'Donnell)(Brief Article)(Obituary)

The recent death of the Melboume restaurateuse Mietta O'Donnell may remind some readers that she was an early recipient of the Argus Pro Bono Publico Award for her courageous stand in refusing two prominent "food critics" admission to her restaurant. This gallant act of defiance against one of the most self-important but trivial categories of journalist had been provoked by the anguish the pair's unasked-for opinions had caused in Mietta's kitchen when published.

Most restaurant owners are too scared of food critics not to let them in and, indeed, not to fawn all over them. Mietta's action, as was noted at the time, proved her not only a worthy descendant of her own restaurant-owning forebears but also the spiritual heir of another Melbourne restaurateur of Italian origin, the legendary Tony "The Gourmet" Strangolacritico, scourge of food critics in the 1920s and '30s.

In one celebrated incident, the food critic of the Melbourne social weekly Table Talk, who had suggested in a review that the cloths and napkins in Strangolacritico's popular Bourke Street establishment Caffe Salmonella were less than snowy, was "invited" on a return visit to inspect the premises for cleanliness. He found himself in the kitchen, where Tony held a sawn-off shotgun to his head and set him washing dishes for ...