Ellen Jenne
Ellen Jenne writes food-led Spare Time and lifestyle features for national and regional titles including the Express, the Mirror and WalesOnline. Her work focuses on practical kitchen tips, supermarket product testing and everyday home hacks aimed at under-35 readers. Across food and drink she consistently promises better results from simple, achievable changes, whether that is one extra ingredient, a different cooking fat or a short extra step before boiling.
Scrambled eggs, roast potatoes and other one-step kitchen fixes
Much of Jenne’s food coverage is built around improving familiar dishes with one small tweak that changes texture or flavour in a noticeable way.
On the Mirror’s Spare Time team she has written guides to keeping scrambled eggs soft by changing a basic step in the cooking process, scones that swap butter and eggs for a cheaper ingredient, and pasta salad that turns silky with a simple adjustment while the pasta cooks. The same pattern runs through pieces on salmon that stays moist when coated in a staple ingredient, cheese toasties made “absolutely delicious” by ditching ham, potato salad made more flavourful when mayonnaise is replaced, and beef mince that becomes juicier with a surprise addition.
On WalesOnline she applies the same service style to roast and baked potatoes, showing readers how to get extra crispy results with one or two simple steps and advice from recipe developers such as HelloFresh’s senior recipe development manager. In another WalesOnline article she asks six chefs to explain the best way to thicken soups, turning their suggestions on ingredients and technique into a clear, repeatable method for giving soups a silky body. Across these stories she breaks down each recipe into what to change, why it works and how to repeat it, keeping the focus on everyday cooking rather than restaurant-level complexity.
I tried Waitrose, ASDA and Tesco’s Christmas ranges
Alongside kitchen hacks, Jenne regularly covers supermarket food ranges by attending preview tastings and walking readers through standout products for the festive season. For the Express she has reported from Waitrose’s Alpine chalet Christmas event, describing how more than 380 new items fit into the supermarket’s party food, centrepieces, desserts and bakery lines and singling out specific dishes such as polar bear bao buns, cheese selections and premium pies.
A companion piece on ASDA’s Christmas range takes the same approach, highlighting cheeses promoted as part of the gifting collection and breakfast and canape options like smoked salmon and hollandaise crumpets, with detail on how they might fit into a Christmas Day menu. In a feature on Tesco’s new Christmas food range she recounts a tasting experience with the supermarket’s executive chef, focusing on new products across the Tesco Finest and core ranges and picking out items such as black garlic and truffle Camembert melts, smoked salmon with a hot honey glaze and hybrid desserts that fuse panettone, sticky toffee pudding and Christmas pudding.
Across these supermarket pieces she blends tasting notes, product descriptions and price information, positioning herself as a guide to which limited-edition festive products are worth seeking out and when they arrive on shelves.
Food-led Spare Time content: recipes, home hacks and gardening tips
Jenne’s food writing sits within a broader Spare Time brief that covers travel, shopping, home hacks, gardening and trending lifestyle topics. Her author profile at the Mirror describes her as a Senior Under 35 writer specialising in content for the 18 to 35 demographic, with topic expertise spanning food, travel, shopping, life hacks, gardening and culture. The Express profiles her as an Under 35 writer for its Spare Time hub, noting that she frequently writes about viral recipes, home and cleaning hacks and travel.
This wider remit is visible in a run of Spare Time headlines that use the same one-step framing she brings to recipes, but applied to everyday problems around the home and garden.
She has written about stopping mould from growing in wardrobes with two common household ingredients, removing musty smells from dishwashers with a single natural item, and preventing weeds without chemicals by placing an everyday object in the garden. In gardening pieces she explains how tomato plants can grow bigger fruit if one job is done in early summer, how Japanese maple leaves can avoid scorching when gardeners follow three simple tasks, and how flowers will bloom for longer if two natural cupboard items are added to the vase. Even when the topic moves away from food, the structure of her coverage remains the same: identify a specific problem, foreground one or two accessible fixes and keep the tone focused on making small, repeatable changes that fit into everyday life.
Networked lifestyle coverage for under-35 readers
Jenne works across a network of titles, with content syndicated between national brands and regional outlets.
Her career path within this network runs from What’s On coverage at MyLondon through network-team roles into dedicated Under 35 and Spare Time work, reflecting a consistent focus on leisure content for younger readers. The same pieces on food hacks, supermarket tastings and home tips that appear under her name in national mastheads also surface on regional platforms such as WalesOnline, where they are positioned within Food & Drink and lifestyle sections.
This setup means she is not a traditional beat reporter tracking restaurant openings or industry news but a lifestyle writer whose food stories are designed to be shared widely and tailored to younger audiences looking for quick gains in the kitchen and at home.
4 more food journalists.
Adam Maidment
Adam Maidment is a senior What's On and LGBTQ+ reporter whose food and leisure coverage is built around immersive, first-person reporting and concrete detail. He works at the Manchester Evening News, focusing on new restaurant and bar openings, regular food reviews, gig and event coverage, and issues affecting LGBTQ+ people. He treats restaurants, pubs, bars and experiences as stories about place, people and community, explaining what makes a venue different and how it fits into the local dining scene. His pieces cover pricing, service, atmosphere, crowds and concept, and he is willing to be critical when gimmicks undermine the experience. He writes character-led pub profiles, works shifts, joins treasure hunts and attends major cultural events, inviting readers to follow what he does and use his straightforward assessments to decide where to eat, drink and spend time.
Alice Lorenzato-Lloyd
Alice Lorenzato-Lloyd is editor at Secret Manchester, where she treats food as part of how people live in the city, not as an isolated subject. She covers restaurants, bars, street food and casual dining, linking new openings and food trends to neighbourhood change, local businesses and everyday routines. Her pieces focus on accessible spots, comfort dishes like pizza and tacos, and clear details of menus, presentation, atmosphere and practical information such as opening hours and booking. She often combines food, drink and live events, producing guides to venues for major sports tournaments and themed pop-ups as part of wider things to do. Alice also reports on hospitality business pressures, city-centre public spaces, charity initiatives, transport and infrastructure, always showing how food and drink fit into community and lifestyle stories. She previously wrote for other regional “Secret” sites as a staff writer and describes herself as a writer and food fanatic.
Aly Walansky
Aly Walansky specializes in service-driven food coverage that treats cocktails and dining as tools for celebration, focusing on how logistics, ordering options, and menu choices turn everyday meals and major holidays into shared experiences. She is a longtime food and travel journalist now writing for Forbes, where her beat centers on cocktails and occasion-driven dining. Her work includes practical, expert-driven roundups such as guides to many variations on the classic martini, shipped-meals gift lists for Mother’s Day, and accessible formats for Thanksgiving and other holidays. She reports through structured lists, restaurant features, and menu-focused profiles that highlight signature dishes and dining trends. Across outlets, she extends this approach to home cooking, grocery shopping, and recipes, and runs a newsletter that shares her current assignments and industry commentary.
Amy Clarke
Amy Clarke stands out for turning food trends, sustainability and rising costs into practical guidance. She writes about changing tastes, new ingredients, formats and dining habits, as well as budget-friendly sustainable eating, nutrition, food shopping and the pressures extreme weather places on small food businesses. Her work includes forward-looking trend round-ups, advice on eating sustainably on a budget, cheaper alternatives to expensive superfoods and a report on how ice cream vans manage heat, logistics and profitability. She works as a multimedia reporter for News Shopper Series, with past work published in Sutton & Croydon Guardian, Yahoo News UK and The Conversation. Clarke combines reported features with clear explainers, expert voices and step-by-step advice. She uses plain language, specific examples and practical tips to show what food changes mean for readers and businesses.