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Steven Shaw, Lawyer-Turned-Author and Founder of eGullet.com and thefatguy.com [by Regan Morris] Steven Shaw says that anyone who says there’s no such thing as a free lunch clearly never went to law school. The author of the recently published Turning the Tables: Restaurants from the Inside Out discovered fine dining during his second year of law school at Fordham University in New York. While being recruited by law firms for summer associate openings, Shaw dined at some of the best restaurants in New York City.
The son of teachers, Shaw was blown away
Then a New York Times reporter noticed
“That’s a big mistake that I made, I saved
by the five-star dining and began asking
the site, and overnight, Shaw’s readership
up enough to live for a year. I think you
the waiters questions about each and every
increased markedly. Soon he was writing
should save up enough to live for three
ingredient, flavor, and extra fork. Although
for Salon.com under the moniker The Fat
years because it takes a really long time to
Shaw was offered a job with Cravath,
Guy, with his first story, “Fat Guys Kick Ass,”
establish yourself in another career,” he
Swaine & Moore, LLP—his first interview
proving to be one of the most popular stories
said. “And when I look back at all the money
and his first choice—he scheduled 50 other
ever posted on the site. Shaw changed the
I spent on that extra suit and that extra pair
interviews just for the meals.
baroquely named shaw.reviews.com to
of shoes that I didn’t really need, and now
thefatguy.com and decided to quit his job to
I could have paid a month’s rent with that
write and practice law on the side.
money, I feel stupid.”
in Wilmington, DE, and started writing notes
“It was all sort of triggered by impulse
When he quit the law to write, Shaw said his
on a restaurant guide to the city, which he
and terror,” he said. “After I left Lehman
family and friends just presumed he was an
circulated among his attorney friends. That
Brothers, I kept a few clients, and I picked up
“unemployed loser.” When he first quit, he
was the start of his food-writing career.
a few others, and I had a client out west who
was trying to sell a book called The Fat Guy,
was trying to turn around this semiconductor
based on the humorous essays he’d written
“It was so poorly written. People make fun of
company. And they wanted me to move
for Salon. But publishers thought it was too
it now,” Shaw told LawCrossing over coffee
out there for a few months and work on
controversial. Now that Turning the Tables
and éclairs at New York’s famed Veniero’s
their turnaround team, and I had several
has been a success, his agent sold The Fat
Pasticceria & Café. Shaw eventually moved
deadlines. I stood to make $1,500 writing or
Guy in 10 minutes.
to a boutique law firm and then to Lehman
$30,000 from them.”
During Shaw’s first trial as a litigation associate with Cravath, he worked on a case
Brothers, where a big part of his job was
Shaw said his friends no longer think he’s a
wining and dining clients in some of the city’s
Shaw knew that the financial temptation
loser; they just want to know when the next
finest restaurants.
would always win if he didn’t make a clean
book is coming out, how many copies he has
break and write. His wife, a photojournalist,
sold, and how much he gets paid. With two
“I realized I liked the food business more
was going through a similar transition from
writers working out of a small home office
than the law business,” he said. Shaw started
a more lucrative editing job. Shaw chose the
in New York City, Shaw said he and his wife
writing restaurant reviews in his spare time
$1,500.
have a system of emailing each other from
and sending them off to publications like the
New York Times and Gourmet. What he didn’t know then was that those publications do not accept freelance restaurant reviews. In 1997, he started a website and posted all his reviews. The word blog had yet to be invented, and only the most computer-savvy and those with $50 extra per month had a website. Shaw said he had a small following of about 50 readers, mainly lawyers and his mother.
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the same room so they remember what they “We just said, ‘Let’s go cold turkey and just
want to talk about, but don’t interrupt each
write,’” he said. “So many writers had told us
other when one or the other is writing.
by then that you can’t do something else; it just doesn’t work. So we did it.”
Although Shaw keeps his law license up to date and helps his friends in traffic court and
When asked what Shaw would advise other
with other small cases, he said he has no
attorneys thinking of pursuing a creative
plans to return to practice unless he has to
passion outside the law. Save money.
financially. He said his most important advice to people leaving the law for another career
continued on back
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THE LARGEST COLLECTION OF LEGAL JOBS ON EARTH
LAW STAR
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1. 800.973.1177
is to enjoy it. While researching Turning the
expanded to include the whole industry. I
would be totally self defeating if I couldn’t be
Tables, Shaw worked in every area of the
went to a veal butcher in the Bronx, I went
with my family while I promoted the book. So
restaurant business.
on fishing boats in South Carolina, I went to
that’s what I told the people at HarperCollins
farms in various places. I wanted people to
when I got [the opportunity] to promote the
“I didn’t want to just assemble a bunch of
understand that restaurants aren’t just what
book. I’m happy to go anywhere. But I’m
essays, which I think makes for a boring
goes on in the kitchen.”
going to drive, and I’m going to bring my wife,
book. So I decided what I should really
my dog, and my baby. So far it’s been great.”
do in order to write the insider’s guide to
While he was passionate about food and
restaurants was to work in every position in
writing, a major reason for changing careers
the business. So I made arrangements with
was to spend more time with his family.
restaurants across the country to be a waiter, work in the kitchen, work as a reservationist,
“One of the reasons I got out of law and into
work with the porter,” he said. “I also
this was for the lifestyle,” he said. “And so it
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