The Well-Fed Interview

I've always wondered why writers devote space to what the subjects of their profiles eat during an interview. Maybe they're justifying the restaurant charges on their expense accounts. Here are a few gustatory delights:

Ned Martel, New York Times, March 14, 2005:
A few weeks ago, over eggs and turkey sausage on Sunset Boulevard... (this was the lede, no less).

Ned Martel, New York Times, March 28, 2005
eated in the choicest nook in the lobby of the Chateau Marmont hotel in Los Angeles recently, the actress Cameron Diaz was attended to by chiseled waiters who apparently knew her dietary tastes and needs. In Hollywood's hierarchical taxonomy, Ms. Diaz is at the top of the food chain. So why was she eating her arugula and proscuitto with her fingers?

(Obviously, this is the lede, with bonus points for one of New Yorkers' cliches about Los Angeles: the Chateau Marmont).