'I miss being anonymous': Star Tribune restaurant critic steps down
'I miss being anonymous': Star Tribune restaurant critic steps down originally appeared on Bring Me The News.
Star Tribune restaurant critic Jon Cheng has stepped down following a recent leave of absence.
Cheng, who joined the newspaper in 2021 after working as a columnist and restaurant critic in New York, London and Singapore, announced his decision in a Star Tribune column published Tuesday.
He reflected on his recent sabbatical, during which he traveled and avoided documenting his dining experiences as a means to "willfully disengage, hoping to restore some of the joy that led to the profession in the first place."
"The truth is, I miss being anonymous and without the pressure to overly dissect — I was letting a job define who I was," Cheng wrote. "This time away should give me the chance to embrace the Twin Cities as a food-obsessed ex-critic who will visit restaurants no less frequently, but give them their due in a way that works for me."
In his farewell, Cheng admits he's changed his mind about cheese curds – which he once likened to "mozzarella sticks on a tail end of mutation."
"The hot and squeaky ones from Mouth Trap, at the State Fair, are excellent. I still don't like walleye, though. Sorry," he concluded.
His complete farewell column can be found .
Cheng joined the newspaper following an internal move for longtime critic Rick Nelson, who shifted to the architecture department before retiring in 2022.
This story was originally reported by Bring Me The News on Jun 2, 2025, where it first appeared.
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