Claire Sams
Claire Sams reports on how food, community and regional life connect for Region Canberra. She is a journalist for Region Canberra, working across stories about regional people, places and events. Alongside food and hospitality coverage, she reports widely on community organisations, local services, courts, crime, environment and regional infrastructure, and also contributes reporting to About Regional.
Food, barbecues and local hospitality
Food coverage in Claire’s work sits inside the fabric of regional life rather than as standalone reviews.
Her piece on Tuggers’ BBQ King and the national “Legend of the Tongs” competition uses a local barbecue business and a national award chase to explore how regional operators participate in broader food culture and recognition. In Region Canberra’s Food & Wine section, she covers events such as a program at Canberra Museum and Gallery, linking food and drink to public events, exhibitions and conversations about technology and algorithms.
The emphasis stays on accessible venues, local characters and gatherings, showing how food occasions bring together neighbours, visitors and regulars in the region.
Community clubs, services and everyday routines
A strong strand in Claire’s reporting focuses on how local clubs and services operate and change over time. Her story on a new Lions Club “bucking the trend of declining memberships” examines volunteer organisations, recruitment and the effort required to keep community groups active.
She follows everyday services in pieces such as “As mowing season begins, is your suburb first on their list?”, looking at how public maintenance schedules affect suburban life.
Through About Regional and reprints on Region Canberra, she profiles a childhood educator calling for more staff in the southeast, tying workforce shortages and staffing ratios directly to the experience of families and educators. In coverage of traditions like Pooh Bear’s Corner, she reports on how long-standing rituals and road-side landmarks bridge the gap between home and holiday, using research to show their role in family routines and regional identity. Across these stories, clubs, services and traditions are treated as central to how regional communities function every week, not only on special occasions.
Court, crime and public safety
Claire also reports on courts and crime, often dealing with serious allegations and complex cases. In Region Canberra she has covered a matter involving almost 70 charges for alleged sexual and violent offending against three women, setting out the scale of the case and its progress through the justice system. Another article follows a civil dispute where a teacher told a woman he did not have genital herpes; the headline notes starkly that “He lied”, signalling a focus on what is alleged, what is proven and the consequences for those involved. These pieces sit alongside her community coverage but keep a clear, direct register on alleged offending, legal arguments and the weight of the charges.
Her crime reporting brings detailed numbers, case framing and outcomes into the same regional news stream as local clubs and services, giving a fuller picture of public safety and justice in the communities she covers.
Environment, infrastructure and regional policy
Environmental change and major projects are another recurring focus in Claire’s work. She has reported on record warmth and rain forcing Selwyn Snow Resort to close six weeks early, explaining how unusual conditions shorten the snow season and affect operators and visitors.
In coverage of a proposed quarry at Royalla, she reports on further reviews that find traffic estimates “spot on”, bringing together technical assessments, community concern and planning decisions.
Her About Regional reporting includes stories where an advocate slams a government plan for gang-gang cockatoos as a “dagger through the heart”, highlighting the clash between conservation goals, regulatory decisions and local sentiment. These pieces treat climate, wildlife, tourism and infrastructure as interconnected issues that reshape how regional communities live, work and travel.
Across outlets, Claire’s through-line is consistent: she treats food, clubs, courts and climate as parts of one regional story. Her coverage moves between barbecue competitions, museum events, volunteer groups, legal cases, resorts and roadside traditions, always returning to how decisions and events touch the lives of people in the region. For story ideas, she is a fit for pitches that sit at the intersection of food with community, public services, justice or environmental change in regional settings, and for broader regional news angles that benefit from clear, ground-level reporting.
4 more food journalists.
Adam Chandler
Adam Chandler stands out for treating food as a business and culture story, not a lifestyle beat. He writes a food column for The Wall Street Journal, where he uses familiar dishes and trends to explain pricing, branding, consumer behavior, demographics and shifting tastes. He has covered chicken thighs, Diet Coke versus Coke Zero, the rise of the $100 hot dog, regional American dishes, the U.S. Open food scene and hard-to-get restaurant reservations. His reporting also spans features, video pieces and audio conversations, all in plain, reported prose that focuses on fast food, chains, branded products, access and the real-world marketplace for eating out. He draws on a long career in national magazines and newspapers, plus books on fast food and work, to give his coverage historical context.
Ash Jurberg
Ash Jurberg weaves travel, food, and family stories into personal narratives that show how specific dishes shape relationships and daily life. He is a freelance journalist focused on travel, gastronomy, and family dynamics, with regular contributions to Allrecipes. There he writes personal essays on how culinary traditions define families, treating home cooking as a lived practice and emphasizing the rituals around particular dishes. His travel and lifestyle work links destinations with the flavors, street foods, and dining traditions that define them, including a piece on El Salvador’s rise as a travel destination and pupusas as its national dish. On Allrecipes he also covers simple, flexible recipes that fit busy routines, such as Nigella Lawson’s three-ingredient all-day dish. His voice blends anecdote, reported detail, and light humor informed by standup and improv, and he has authored two books.
Avril Treasure
Avril Treasure is Editor for Time Out Sydney and a food and drink specialist known for critic-led guides that turn restaurants, bars and cafés into clear choices. She writes ranked lists, neighbourhood roundups and occasion-based picks, covering best restaurants, bars, coffee, casual dining, new openings and long-running institutions. Her reviews combine menu, drinks, price, opening hours, location and atmosphere to help readers decide where to go. She also covers things to do, arts and culture, nightlife, news, lifestyle and sport, including city-wide guides and picks for Mexican food and dancefloors. Treasure has written for The Saturday Telegraph, Concrete Playground, Urban List NZ and Broadsheet, and appears as a monthly guest on ABC Radio Sydney. She has more than a decade of print and digital experience across food, drink, news, travel, home and culture.
Bud Kennedy
Bud Kennedy is a long-time Star-Telegram columnist whose defining work is Eats Beat, a practical chronicle of Texas dining and community life. He has written the column in print since 1985 and online since 1992, producing more than 3,000 pieces on cafes, barbecue joints, burger spots and other everyday restaurants. He reports openings, closings, changes and deals with close attention to names, dates and what diners can expect next. His food coverage connects restaurant news to neighborhood change, tradition, development and economic growth. Kennedy also writes opinion columns on city growth, identity, history, sports, media, state politics and national conflict. His reporting draws on a 54-year newspaper career covering two Super Bowls, a presidential inauguration, seven national political conventions and 19 sessions of the Texas Legislature. He appears weekly on Inside Texas Politics and is a frequent broadcast guest and speaker.