Hayley Schueneman
Hayley Schueneman focuses on the way brands, chains and pop culture shape what people eat, with a particular emphasis on fast-food menus, grocery-store launches and viral food trends. At Taste of Home she writes and edits stories that connect limited-time products, nostalgic comebacks and social-media buzz to everyday eating, from Taco Bell throwback menus to new Nutella flavors and World Cup–themed Dairy Queen treats. Her stated areas of expertise include vegan and vegetarian recipes, budget-friendly cooking and hacking fast-food menus, which gives her coverage a practical, accessible angle even when she is writing about big-name brands. She often structures pieces around hands-on tests and tasting notes, such as trying eight oat milks to find the best latte or baking a viral dot cake to judge whether it deserves the hype. Alongside her work at the masthead, she is a freelance writer and editor with bylines at outlets including Reductress, The Cut, Bustle, NYLON, Elite Daily and Simply Recipes.
Fast-food chains and brand launches
Fast-food culture is a core strand of Schueneman’s work, and she returns to it frequently through menu news, taste tests and explainers. Her Taco Bell Decades Menu story walks readers through the return of four discontinued items, blending nostalgia for the Beefy Crunch Burrito with clear details on availability, early access for rewards members and what makes each item worth revisiting.
She brings the same mix of enthusiasm and specificity to coverage of McDonald’s, explaining why the chain’s Diet Coke tastes different from competitors and examining what makes that fountain soda a cult favorite.
Schueneman also compares branded and private-label offerings, as in her examination of whether Aldi’s diet cola is a true dupe for McDonald’s Diet Coke, using side-by-side tasting to anchor the piece. Time-sensitive launches are another recurring focus: she highlights Nutella Peanut as the brand’s first new flavor in six decades, tracks its rollout across retailers, and notes its recognition with a Taste of Home award.
On the chain side, she covers themed menus and seasonal drops, including Dairy Queen’s World Cup Blizzards and July 4th float, framing them as part of a broader pattern of marketing-driven, limited-time fast-food experiences.
Coffee, soda and alternative milks
Another distinctive thread in Schueneman’s beat is the way she treats coffee, sodas and related products almost as subcultures of their own.
Her Pocket Coffee explainer introduces the product as a chocolate with a liquid espresso center, situates it within viral interest, and breaks down what makes it appealing to coffee drinkers beyond the novelty. She extends this interest in caffeinated trends into practical testing pieces, such as buying eight different oat milks from a grocery store and evaluating which one makes the best oat milk latte, turning an everyday shopping decision into a structured experiment.
Soda appears both as a subject of brand analysis and of taste-driven reporting. In addition to detailing what sets McDonald’s Diet Coke apart from other fast-food offerings, she uses grocery-store comparisons to explore how closely an Aldi cola can mimic that signature flavor.
Across these stories she combines technical detail - ingredients, formulations, serving formats - with subjective impressions of taste and texture, positioning herself as both an informed consumer and a guide to increasingly crowded beverage categories.
Celebrity breakfasts and food personalities
Schueneman often uses individual people as entry points into food stories, especially in recurring breakfast and sandwich formats. In her piece on Elle Fanning’s favorite breakfast sandwich, she foregrounds the actor’s preferred salty-sweet combination - sausage, fried egg, runny cheese and strawberry jam - and uses that detail to explore why the flavor profile works. Her Super Bowl–adjacent interview with Elijah Wood combines questions about a live commercial partnership with Skittles with conversation about his breakfast habits and interactions with fans, tying pop culture promotion back to personal food rituals.
She takes a more historical and reflective approach with figures such as Pope Francis, using his love of alfajores to discuss themes of modesty and legacy before guiding readers toward making the dessert themselves. Across these pieces, she treats celebrities and public figures as a way to show how food choices express identity, whether through a daily breakfast, a sentimental dessert or a promotional tie-in, while keeping the focus on the dishes and ingredients rather than on gossip.
Explainers on ingredients, desserts and food trends
Beyond brands and personalities, Schueneman spends significant time on explainers that demystify ingredients and trends that are suddenly “everywhere.” Her guide to yuzu describes the citrus, outlines its flavor, and tracks its spread into packaged foods and restaurant menus, helping readers understand why it has become so prominent. In dessert coverage, she moves between classic and viral forms: the alfajores piece connects a traditional treat to a contemporary figure, while her dot cake story documents making a social-media-famous cake at home to see whether it earns its online reputation.
These trend pieces often sit alongside collections of related viral recipes and baking ideas, underscoring her interest in how online platforms drive new home baking projects. Her author bio highlights vegan and vegetarian recipes and budget-friendly cooking, and those priorities surface in her focus on accessible ingredients and techniques even when the hook is novelty or trendiness.
Whether she is unpacking a new grocery product, explaining an unfamiliar ingredient or testing a highly shareable cake, she writes in a clear, straightforward style that keeps the emphasis on what the reader can cook, taste or buy next.
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.