No-nonsense food critic John Lethlean has taken to social media to announce the death of his beloved dog and long-time companion Sailor.
The veteran restaurant and food writer has appeared in major Australian newspapers and magazines for more than two decades, having garnered a following for his honest, engaging and often brutal reviews.
‘It’s taken quite a few months to process this, but Sailor’s love of the water and playing with sting-rays got the better of her late last year and life just isn’t the same any more,’ he share to Instagram on Tuesday.
He explained as a word of caution for anyone ‘with a dog that won’t stop chasing fish’ that stingrays will naturally defend themselves and their barbs can easily be lethal to dogs. ‘Like all good dogs, Sailor was nothing if not curious,’ he said.
Lethlean wrote in a Amazon e-book about his writing career titled ‘Post Script’ that he and his wife had treated Sailor like a family member.
‘A childless couple with love in our hearts and enormous affection for most dogs, let alone our own, Sailor didn’t share our attention with anyone,’ he wrote.
‘The three of us lived at very close quarters for five years… We dragged her bed into our bedroom every night when it was time to hit the hay and, when she inevitably got tired of sleeping between us, she’d jump off the bed and slip into her own.
‘Just knowing she was there was comforting. I’d like to think it was reciprocal.’
Renowned food critic John Lethlean announced his dog Sailor had died from a sting-ray barb
Lethlean no-holds-barred reviews have caused controversy on several occasions.
His one-star review of legendary chef Cheong Liew’s The Grange in 2008 contributed to its closure the following year.
One of the pioneers of Asian-Australian cuisine, Liew had operated the restaurant for 14 years before and had been awarded an Order of Australia.
In 2016, Lethlean’s review of Adelaide Oval’s fine dining restaurant Hill of Grace prompted them to call in their lawyers after he roasted the food, the service, the décor and the staff.
He referred to one dish as ‘brown mucoid gloop’ and summed up the venue’s efforts as ‘out for a duck’.
Lethlean also didn’t hold back when the famed King Island Dairy announced it’s closure last year.
‘The cheeses have always been rubbish and this so-called brie I have here… completely devoid of any character whatsoever unless all you’re looking for in a soft, white mould cheese is industrial salt,’ he wrote.
But, rather than shooting from the hip, Lethlean insisted he was methodical about they way he conducted his reviews.
The critic warned other owners of ‘dogs who like to chase fish’ that they should be careful
‘If you get a feeling from the start that there are some hard words that need to be said, you spend the next whatever hours in the restaurant making sure that you have evidence to support the kind of comments you are going to make,’ he told Crikey.
‘If something contentious is going in, I got photographs of it… before blogs had even been heard of.
‘If I want to say something is oily, I make sure I’ve got a photograph of oily. If I’m going to say the tablecloths were stained and tatty, I take photographs of stained and tatty tablecloths.’
