As if to prove one of the points I just made about the popularity of food lists, last week an actual food-list scandal occurred. A Fox News list of the “most influential BBQ pitmasters and personalities” came in for grief when someone who was actually on the list, Texas Monthly barbecue editor Daniel Vaughn, noticed that while barbecue is noted for its rich heritage in the African-American community (you could make a movie about the way barbecue’s history intersects with African-American history in Chicago), the list was as white as a plate of cream cheese sandwiches at a D.A.R. tea. “Aha!” shouted everyone for whom Fox News is a joint venture between Charles Koch and Satan. “Proof that Fox News is racist!”
Of course, that’s a problem that a good list should be trying to correct, not repeat. We come back to one of my original points, which is that just because someone made a list, doesn’t mean they know jack about the field they’re pontificating about. If you’re looking at somebody’s list, the first thing to do is judge if it’s the most obvious group of names in the field or if it has some quirks that suggest someone who knows his stuff well enough to include a few left-field choices. In other words, before you listen to a list’s judgments, make your own judgments about how they got there.
