I think it’s neat when you get to know a certain writer’s style so well that you can recognize that writer’s work without even looking at the byline.

It just happened to me. I just knew this piece about blackberry cobbler (can’t link to it directly; it’s piece #2) was written by Sam Sifton, and when I got to the bottom I realized I was right.

I know it’s not nice to say things like this, but: I can’t stand Sam Sifton’s writing. His prose is so fucking purple.

Apparently I’m not the first person to feel this way. And I found a Facebook group devoted to hating his writing.

I don’t read his restaurant reviews, but I do see his food column in the New York Times Magazine every few weeks. He’s been writing there for several months, and I’ve come to recognize a couple of his tics.

One, he uses the word “with” in an annoying precious way, usually (but not always) in the form [adjective] with [noun]:

• a honeyed glaze made piquant with vinegar
• a cool minted yogurt sauce that flashes with citrus and fire
• fat brioche croutons glistening with butter and woodsy with thyme
• oxtail stew, brown and steaming, light with ginger and thyme, pungent with allspice and soy
• Thick with onions and scallions and garlic
• romaine, coated thick with emulsified oil that is bright with garlic and acidity, nutty with cheese and has some kind of salt-fish pong in it to bind the whole

He also likes the phrase “tastes of”:

• It tastes of the best parts of summer in Manhattan
• It will taste of summer itself
• poultry that looked like pork and tasted of fish