Gretchen McKay
Gretchen McKay is an award-winning food editor and features reporter at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette whose coverage treats food and drink as stories about people, place and tradition rather than just recipes or restaurant listings. Her beat centers on how regional cooks, makers and hosts turn everyday ingredients into experiences, from cocktails and tailgates to factory tours and festivals. She combines reported features with first-person narrative and tested recipes, giving her work a practical, deeply local feel.
Food editor with a long-running features lens
McKay has written features for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for decades and has focused on the food section for more than twenty years. She has been testing recipes and writing for the food pages since 2009 and became the paper’s food editor in 2021. That dual role shapes a beat that moves between profiles of influential figures in regional food, histories of staple ingredients and service pieces that point readers to what to eat and drink next.
Her appreciation of former food editor Suzanne Martinson shows how she frames her own work within the evolution of the section, linking personal reporting experience with the paper’s broader food coverage. Across recent pieces, she balances newsy angles - such as business milestones or festival expansions - with narrative detail that comes from spending time in kitchens, taprooms and production spaces.
Local food businesses and makers
McKay spends significant time on the small businesses and artisans behind recognizable products, often using a single shop, truck or factory as the spine for a broader regional story. She follows a chocolatier’s decision to open a new factory tour at Sarris Candies, treating the tour as both a nostalgic attraction and a window into how the company makes and markets its products.
Her reporting on a pickle maker who wins a coveted “Golden Ticket” at Walmart’s annual open call tracks how Bridge City Brinery turns a local specialty into a national retail opportunity, including the practical implications for production and distribution. In a feature on a German food truck serving schnitzel, bratwurst and potato salad, she uses the menu to show how immigrant and heritage cuisines are translated into mobile, casual formats for local customers.
Even when she writes in the sports section - such as on a pierogi and chipped chopped ham sandwich tied to a Steelers game abroad - she keeps focus on the maker and the tradition behind the dish rather than on pure game-day spectacle.
Events, festivals and sports-adjacent food
A major strand of McKay’s coverage is the crowded calendar of regional food events, which she approaches as beat reporting rather than generic listings.
She compiles detailed roundups of June and August food events that highlight not only dates and venues but also the specific dishes, styles and neighborhoods involved, giving a sense of how different communities participate. Her story on the Picklesburgh festival’s expanded footprint into Market Square and Arts Landing uses that logistical change to explain the growth of the event and the broader enthusiasm for pickles and brined foods. In a tailgating feature with a former Steelers wide receiver, she shows how a Louisiana-influenced cook brings “sizzle” to a Pittsburgh stadium tailgate, tying together regional identity, sports culture and specific recipes.
These pieces position her as a key observer of how food anchors public gatherings, whether around a festival bridge, a downtown square or a stadium parking lot.
Recipes, home cooking and drinks
McKay continues to test recipes as part of her reporting, often embedding them in stories about home cooking and everyday tools. Her Dutch oven coverage breaks down why the vessel matters and how to get more from it in practical terms, pairing technique guidance with accessible recipes. She writes frequently about iconic or overlooked products, such as a processed pork roll known as Taylor ham, and uses a weeklong encounter with the dish to explore its status in New Jersey and where to find it on local breakfast sandwiches.
On the drinks side, she moves between cocktail history, tasting rooms and contemporary beverage menus. Her pieces on Ponfeigh Distillery’s revival of historic rye whiskey dig into the legacy of Pennsylvania rye, the role of early cocktails like the old fashioned and sazerac, and how modern distillers build new mules and margaritas around their spirits.
Coverage of a Black-owned tasting lounge, Black Brewhouse, details cocktail and mocktail lists, witty drink names and the curated presence of other small beverage makers, underlining her interest in how hospitality businesses construct drink programs and partner across brands.
Features beyond the food section
While food is her primary beat, McKay writes widely across the features report, often keeping an eye on how people create and experience place. In a profile of a plein air painter in the Goodness section, she follows his cityscapes and landscapes to show how artistic practice captures everyday urban views. Her travel writing on Pennsylvania’s Pine Creek Gorge uses fall foliage and hiking as entry points into a detailed portrait of the region’s terrain and attractions. Even in these non-food pieces, she maintains the same reported, descriptive style found in her food coverage, emphasizing sensory detail and the routines of the people she interviews. Together, these stories show that her food writing sits within a broader interest in lived experience, whether that means cooking in a home kitchen, tending bar in a downtown lounge or painting outdoors along a river gorge.
4 more food journalists.
Aaron Guerrero
Aaron Guerrero is head of the digital department at Miami’s Community Newspapers, where he pairs restaurant coverage with community-facing content. He focuses on how Miami-area restaurants evolve, celebrate, and experiment through new concepts, menus, and neighborhood-focused dining experiences. He reports on restaurant openings, such as an Italian food hall at Plaza Coral Gables, new executive lunch menus, and wood-fired Latin steakhouse brunches, explaining what sets each venue apart. He also covers awards, like a Wine Spectator honor for an Italian chophouse, and events that turn dining rooms into social hubs. His bylines extend to features on sports-themed gatherings, civic renamings, local visits to restaurant programs, sponsored community pieces, and official notices. His work is straightforward and descriptive, helping readers and local businesses connect around specific openings, promotions, and dining experiences.
Aarron Fleming
Aarron Fleming reports on how courts, jails and public safety systems work over time. He is a reporter at The Daily Memphian covering public safety, the local court system, suburban news and business developments in North Mississippi. His work follows trials, sentencing, appeals, plea deals and judicial decisions, including major cases tied to Tyre Nichols and rapper Young Dolph. He also covers jail conditions, inmate deaths, crime data, prosecution units, trafficking, shootings and public-order incidents. His suburban reporting examines cannabis businesses, restaurant openings and how commercial growth affects communities such as Olive Branch. Fleming previously covered education in the same newsroom. He uses clear, unadorned prose to explain legal steps, deadlines, institutional problems and the political, commercial and community effects of public-safety decisions.
Alana Al-Hatlani
Alana Al-Hatlani is a food writer and editor who treats recipes, restaurants, and food features as ways to explore culture, community, and the business of eating. She works on the food team at Southern Living, overseeing and contributing to print recipes and reported features. Her pastry-focused, restaurant-tested perspective comes from time in restaurant and bakery kitchens. She helps plan and write monthly food packages, including “The South’s Most Treasured Desserts,” and wrote “8 Summer Recipes Our Editors Make Every Year.” She also writes recipe tips, ingredient explainers, restaurant guides, and reported stories about workers, owners, and communities. Her subjects include regional specialties, dining scenes, kitchen basics, and food industries. Her work has appeared with OpenTable and Yahoo. She reports on the ground, explains techniques clearly, and connects specific dishes and places to larger stories about food and livelihood.
Alana Edgin
Alana Edgin is a business reporter whose strongest focus is food, restaurants and consumer-facing businesses. She works at the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal and has also had work syndicated across AOL and Yahoo News. She covers new openings, closings, expansions and franchise growth, along with retail, health, services, corporate news, data incidents, business support programs and sponsorships. Her reporting includes detailed roundups of new restaurants and businesses, coverage of El Pollo Loco’s opening, and stories on burger trucks, dessert shops, Vietnamese sandwich restaurants and gourmet markets. She also contributes to food and drink reviews, including fall coffee and jerky comparisons. Edgin reports with practical “what, when, where” details, structured comparisons and clear explanations of how offers, partnerships and business changes affect consumers and the local economy.