Back in the mists of 2011, Grace Dent received an email from Andy Barker, then the editor of ES Magazine. She had recently written a funny piece defending the classic London greasy spoon from the onslaught of hipster cafés. Barker needed someone to cover the restaurant column following an abrupt departure. “She had such a singular voice and hilarious turn of phrase,” he recalls. Would she mind stepping in for a couple of weeks?
Dent did not mind. In fact, sashaying in and out of restaurants, dispensing critiques from on high like a glam northern Michael Winner, was precisely the sort of notoriety she had always dreamed of. “I was like, I am never giving the job up,” Dent says. “My entire career has been people saying: ‘Could you possibly step in for a little bit while we work out somebody posh who is more suitable for this job?’ Then they’re like: ‘Shit! She’s really good and she’s built an audience!’” She pauses and laughs some more. “Oh my God! It still happens now!”
