Amanda Mactas

Amanda Mactas links food news, pop culture, and practical consumer advice, focusing on how brands, products, and personalities show up in everyday eating. She is an associate editor at Delish, working on news and feature stories that range from celebrity-driven launches to value-focused roundups and taste tests. Her wider portfolio spans food, travel, health, and lifestyle writing, giving her coverage a service angle that extends beyond the plate.

News and features on food culture

At Delish, Amanda works on feature and news stories that cover high-interest moments in food culture, including the launch of products like Whoopi Goldberg’s Prosecco. Her coverage often uses a single personality or product as a lens into broader trends, as in her piece on Gordon Ramsay revealing the one meal his six children can agree on, which turns a family anecdote into a portrait of home cooking habits at scale. She applies the same approach to competitive eating, writing about Joey Chestnut’s return to Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest and his regained title, framing the event as a kind of sports-world equivalent within food. Her article on Ethan Hawke’s long-standing affection for Taco Bell uses the actor’s memories to explore the emotional role fast food plays over a lifetime. Across these stories, she treats chefs, actors, and champion eaters as characters in a larger narrative about why certain foods matter to people.

Event-driven food deals and brand campaigns

Amanda regularly reports on limited-time food deals tied to major cultural and sports moments, with a strong emphasis on how readers can take advantage of them. In her story “15 Fourth Of July Food Deals From Your Favorite All-American Chains,” she compiles offers from national brands into a clear, service-oriented guide for holiday eating. She has covered soccer-related promotions as well, authoring a Delish roundup of food deals for soccer fans that highlights chains such as Fuzzy’s Taco Shop and shows how brands leverage marquee matches to drive traffic. These pieces track the intersection of marketing strategy, calendar events, and consumer value, making brand tactics legible while keeping the focus on what the audience can actually get. Her work often positions major sports days and national holidays as anchors for coverage of fast-food chains, restaurant groups, and consumer-packaged goods promotions.

Product testing, grocery finds, and shopping guides

Amanda’s reporting frequently includes hands-on product testing and detailed shopping guidance. In an article headlined “We Tried Over 20 (!) Hot Dogs & These Are The Only Ones Worth …,” she evaluates a wide range of hot dog brands, singling out the ones that deliver on taste and quality and explaining where readers can buy them, including wholesale outlets and specialty grocery stores. She extends this consumer lens to adjacent categories, writing about Kibbles ’n Bits chewy dog treats priced under three dollars and outlining pricing, shipping thresholds, and value for pet owners. Her work also explores the hidden value of household items: in one Delish piece, she covers vintage kitchen treasures that have become serious collectors’ items, showing how retro cookware and tools can amount to a “secret fortune” in the home. These stories combine practical buying advice, price and availability details, and a clear point of view on what is worth seeking out, building trust with readers who treat her pieces as a guide to the market.

Food, travel, and lifestyle features beyond Delish

Beyond her role at Delish, Amanda works as a freelance writer and editor whose food and lifestyle features appear across a range of magazines and digital outlets. She has written on topics that include public markets, restaurant culture, wellness, and travel, contributing to publications focused on dining, health, and global journeys. Her profile “Soul Food Seltzer: A Chat with Danica Dias of Grown Folks” for Beyondish is an example of her interview-driven work, introducing readers to a brand founder and exploring how heritage flavors translate into a new beverage category. In other assignments, she brings a nutrition and travel lens to food, such as coverage on how ingredients like spinach can support people while traveling, and pieces that tie everyday eating to broader lifestyle routines. Taken together, her off-Delish work shows a consistent interest in how food connects to place, wellness, and brand storytelling, complementing the newsier, deal-focused coverage she produces for the masthead.

Across all of these beats, Amanda’s reporting is anchored in clear, accessible prose and a strong service orientation: she tells readers what is happening in food culture, which brands and products are involved, and why it matters for what they buy, cook, and enjoy.