I heard that a food critic (who is British male) made a comment on a dish like this:
It looks very pretty, but it doesn't eat very well.
The expression amazed me as I never knew food can be a subject of verb eat. I couldn't find such a usage in any dictionaries. Is it something poetic rather than correct English?
Answer
English is cool, in that words can often be "bent" to suit our purposes.
Context is everything. Can you use food as a subject of the word eat? Sure you can; you just saw it done. But I'm not surprised you heard this obscure usage being uttered by a food critic. It's their job to eat, taste, and comment, and they will form their sentences accordingly.
I found a similar usage in the comments of a wine critic:
On the second night the wine seemed to offer up even more dark fruit, suggesting that a year or so in bottle may deliver even more. This is not to say that the wine doesn't drink well now – compared to a few of the 2007 Cotes du Rhones I have had, this wine does not show too much heat or acidity at this stage.
I agree with Ryan's answer above; I, too, would not recommend using this wording too often. After, say, visiting a McDonald's, you probably don't want to say:
The French fries were edible, but the Big Mac didn't eat very well.
no matter how mediocre you found the food – unless you want to sound like a food critic for some reason.
The sentence isn't grammatically flawed, but it's not how most people would say it.
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