Chronicle restaurant reviewer and executive food and wine editor Michael Bauer says cut backs at newspapers have reached the food section:

In the Bay Area, we’ve lost Julie Kaufmann and Carolyn Jung at the San Jose Mercury News. Just last week, Merc restaurant critic Aleta Watson decided to retire. At the Contra Costa Times, food editor and restaurant critic Nicholas Boer was part of that paper’s downsizing.

He goes on to list food writers who have left papers in L.A., N.Y. and elsewhere. “I think it is a short-sighted reaction to tough times,” Bauer writes. “Newspapers are increasingly becoming more local, and few topics connect a community more than food. We need more coverage of the topic, not less.”