Pulitzer Prize-winning restaurant critic Jonathan Gold is leaving the L.A. Weekly for the Los Angeles Times.
Seattle Weekly food critic Hanna Raskin led a panel of alt-weekly scribes at the Association of Food Journalists' conference last week in Charleston. In addition, several alt-weekly food writers took home awards at the conference.
Seattle Weekly food critic Hanna Raskin will be leading a panel of alt-weekly scribes at the Association of Food Journalists' annual conference in Charleston, S.C -- and you're invited.
Three alt-weekly food writers — and one alt-weekly videographer — were named winners of the 2011 James Beard Foundation Awards on Friday night.
When the Pulitzer Prize winners and finalists were announced today, there was a familiar alt-weekly name on the list: LA Weekly's Jonathan Gold was one of two finalists for criticism, a category Gold won in 2007.
Alt-Weekly writers are well-represented in the list of finalists for the 2011 James Beard Foundation Awards. Winners will be announced on May 6.
Writers from the Chicago Reader, L.A. Weekly and Westword all took home top prizes at this year's James Beard Foundation Journalism Awards, which recognize excellence in food writing. The Reader's Cliff Doerksen won in the Newspaper Feature Writing category for his feature on mince pie, and Westword's Jared Jacang Maher came out on top in the Newspaper Feature Writing About Restaurants and/or Chefs category for his piece on the pay-what-you-want SAME Cafe. Meanwhile, the Weekly's Pulitzer-winning food critic Jonathan Gold added another awards notch to his belt with a win in the Craig Claiborne Distinguished Restaurant Reviews category.
As usual, AAN members are well-represented in the list of finalists for the 2010 James Beard Foundation Journalism Awards, which recognize excellence in food writing. The L.A. Weekly's Jonathan Gold and Westword's Jason Sheehan (who is now at Seattle Weekly) are both nominated for the Craig Claiborne Distinguished Restaurant Reviews, and Gold is also a finalist in the Writing on Spirits, Wine or Beer category. Elsewhere, the Newspaper Feature Writing category is comprised only of AAN members, with two Chicago Reader pieces and one from the Village Voice vying for the top prize. Westword nabs another finalist in the Newspaper Feature Writing About Restaurants and/or Chefs, where it is joined as a finalist by Washington City Paper. And last, but certainly not least, the Houston Press is a finalist in the Multimedia Food Feature category. Winners will be announced on May 2.
Gold, who has won a Pulitzer Prize for his work at the Weekly, had always been a freelancer for the paper -- until now. He's now on staff, where he'll continue writing his columns and also beging contributing to Squid Ink, the Weekly's food blog.
This week's New Yorker has a profile of the Pulitzer-winning L.A. Weekly food critic that has reportedly been "almost a year in the making." While the full article is available only to subscribers, here's an interesting tidbit from an abstract on the magazine's website: "To Gold's readers, his reviews have the ontological status that the New York Times has for people interested in current events: he doesn't write about it because it is, it is because he's written about it."
