09/07/2026
In March 2012, 85-year-old columnist Marilyn Hagerty published a sincere review of a newly opened Olive Garden in the Grand Forks Herald in North Dakota. Praising the restaurant's generous chicken Alfredo and warm breadsticks, her straightforward dining column unexpectedly caught the attention of social media and went viral across the internet.
Urban bloggers and internet snarks mocked her wholesome earnestness, treating her lack of cosmopolitan culinary critique as a punchline. However, celebrity chef and globe-trotting author Anthony Bourdain took the exact opposite stance, defending Hagerty publicly against online cynics and recognizing her voice as a rare, honest snapshot of everyday American dining.
Refusing to let the bullies have the last word, Bourdain partnered with Hagerty through his HarperCollins imprint to publish Grand Forks: A History of American Dining in 128 Reviews in 2013. Writing the book's foreword, Bourdain celebrated her decades-long chronicle of Midwestern community life, declaring the collection an invaluable cultural record that "kills snark dead".
