Christiane Lauterbach Profile

The Grande Dame of Dining Out

Food critic Christiane Lauterbach roams Atlanta seeking the next great meal

By Dyana Bagby

Christiane Lauterbach would rather eat an Oscar Meyer hot dog slathered in German mustard than a seasoned sausage that costs ten bucks.

“I would never say one duplicates the other,” says Lauterbach, the renowned restaurant critic for Atlanta magazine who is not afraid to share her opinions — glowing and critical — about the city’s dining scene.

“But nobody talks about the ratio of price to pleasure … there is a simplicity factor,” she says, explaining the difference between a cheap, tasty mass-produced hot dog and a chef-made, tasty hot dog.

“But I do love hot dogs, they are one of my vices,” she adds with a chuckle. This is pretty high praise from someone who served nearly 20 years on the James Beard Awards Committee tasked with selecting the best of America’s food culture.

Lauterbach, who says she is “70ish,” was born in Paris. Her mother abandoned her when she was an infant and she was raised by her father and a stern grandmother. As a child, she wandered the streets of Paris and discovered a world of architecture, parks, and food.

“I was a very lonely kid growing up in a very big city,” she says. “So, when you don't have anybody and you live in Paris, you walk incessantly. And you look at stuff, you follow your own intuition.”

The young explorer observed what her family could and could not afford, and she was very interested to see what other people were eating. She would taste the free bites of food handed out by vendors, noticing the textures of a pâté or a pastry, for example. She also began paying attention to how different foods made her feel — excited, warm, sensual. These emotions come back to her still today when she writes about dining. She continued her explorations and moved to Munich, Germany, in her 20s and then later to New York City. She eventually settled in Atlanta where her husband attended Emory Law School. In the early 1980s, she helped found Knife and Fork, the premier guide to local restaurants that was mailed to subscribers.

The popular newsletter is currently on hiatus after nearly 40 years. In Knife and Fork’s heyday not too long ago, however, it caught the attention of Jeff Bezos who advertised subscriptions to the newsletter on Amazon. He didn’t ask Lauterbach before doing so and didn’t have copies of Knife and Fork. Lauterbach angrily sent him a letter demanding he take her product off his website. He did.

“He listed it for so much more money than it really is,” she says, anger in her voice. And she adds, only half-joking. “It is worth living long enough to see him die.”

Christiane Lauterbach at the Daily Chew in Morningside-Lenox Park. (Photo by Isadora Pennington)