Dorothy Chapman, 'Orlando Sentinel' Restaurant Critic, Dies at 83

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(AP) Dorothy Chapman, a writer and editor for the Orlando Sentinel for 25 years who served as the newspaper's first restaurant critic, has died. She was 83.

Chapman died Sunday in Orlando after battling cancer. She retired from the newspaper in 1986, spending her final 15 years there as a food writer, restaurant critic, and editor.

""We [chefs] gave her a lot of respect because she gave us a lot of respect,"" said longtime Orlando restaurateur Major Jarman. ""She was fair. Everyone took her comments as constructive criticism and learned from them.""

More than 30 years ago, Chapman created ""Thought You'd Never Ask,"" a weekly restaurant recipe column that remains the Sentinel's oldest continuous local column. Chapman wrote four cookbooks based on the column.

Before moving to Orlando in 1959, Chapman had television and radio jobs in Arizona. Born in New York, she grew up in Arizona and graduated from Arizona State University in Tempe.

In Orlando, she worked briefly at a weekly newspaper, the now-defunct Corner Cupboard. Before becoming the Sentinel's food editor, Chapman was women's editor, Lake County editor, and fashion editor.

Chapman served as president of the Florida Press Club and the Central Florida chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, Sigma Delta Chi, and served on the Florida Commission on the Status of Women.

""My mom was a single working mother at a time when that was unheard of in Central Florida,"" said her daughter, Amy Elliot of Orlando. ""She was proud of her degree in journalism.""

Chapman is also survived by daughters Deborah Snyder of Hammond, Ind., and Rosemary Lantta, of Casper, Wyo., and by four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.