Jessica Trufant
Jessica Trufant uses food reporting to connect readers with the businesses, personalities and experiences that define everyday life, while also working across courts, crime and local government coverage for The Patriot Ledger. She reports on food, dining and grocery for the masthead, with stories that move between restaurant openings, chefs and local events, and are frequently shared across partner outlets such as USA Today and Yahoo News. Her food coverage includes a profile of a barbecue food truck serving smoked meats in Quincy, showing her focus on small operators and how they fit into the wider community.
Food, dining and grocery on the South Shore
Trufant’s food beat centers on the South Shore’s restaurants, markets and food-driven experiences, with an emphasis on clear, practical detail about what is new and what it offers.
She covers openings such as Julianne’s Kitchen & Bar, explaining its location inside the Milton Marketplace, the transition from the former Plate restaurant and the concept behind the new space. Her reporting on that venue includes specifics like addresses, floor level and the link to a long-time Fruit Center employee, reflecting a habit of grounding food stories in place and people. In her food truck profile, she focuses on smoked meats and the barbecue style, showing how a mobile business expands dining options in Quincy and highlighting what customers can expect from the menu and setup.
The masthead identifies her explicitly as a food, dining and grocery reporter, underscoring that coverage of restaurants and food retail is a dedicated part of her role.
Restaurants, chefs and food experiences
Beyond openings, Trufant regularly spotlights chefs and experiential food culture, treating food as entertainment as well as sustenance. Her feature on Quincy chef Laurence Louie’s win on “Beat Bobby Flay” traces how a local cook defeats a celebrity chef with rice noodle rolls, tying national television exposure back to the local dining community. She reports this as a food story, concentrating on the dish, the competition and the implications for the chef’s profile rather than on personality alone. In her BYOB South Shore holiday lights trolley tour coverage, she shows the social side of drinking and dining, describing riders visiting decorated homes while “getting lit,” and situates the tours in the seasonal calendar with dates and logistics. These pieces illustrate how she treats food experiences - television competitions, trolley tours, new restaurant concepts - as part of a broader lifestyle beat that still rests on concrete details about what people eat and where they go.
Courts, crime and public safety
Alongside food, Trufant reports extensively on courts and public safety, often handling sensitive, high-profile cases with explanatory framing.
She covers the Lindsay Clancy murder trial through multiple angles, including an explainer on how postpartum psychosis can alter reality and a USA Today piece on what a hung jury would mean in the case, breaking down legal outcomes and mental health issues for general readers. Her article on a suspended Plymouth police officer and her husband indicted on child rape charges details the grand jury counts and the role of the district attorney’s office, maintaining focus on charge language and procedural steps.
In coverage of former Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor’s appearance in another murder case, she tracks his invocation of the Fifth Amendment, his prior role in the Karen Read investigation and the upcoming hearing schedule, keeping the story anchored in court proceedings and investigative history. She also reports on public safety incidents such as a suspected drowning at a South Shore beach and a Pembroke barn collapse that seriously injured construction workers, providing timelines, locations and official statements from fire departments and other agencies.
Local government and community coverage
Trufant continues to cover local government and community institutions, often at the intersection of finance, politics and everyday impact. Her reporting on Marshfield’s rejected $7 million property tax override follows the sequence from town meeting approval to the final ballot vote, then details the margin by which the measure failed and the looming cuts that result.
In a related story on the Marshfield Select Board choosing a new town administrator, she describes the vote breakdown, the candidates considered and the board’s decision to put the override on a townwide ballot, connecting personnel choices to fiscal policy. She reports on vandalism at the Blue Hill Observatory and Science Center, explaining that the damage forced a temporary closure to the public and situating the incident within the observatory’s role as a regional science venue.
Across these pieces, she treats municipal decisions and community institutions with the same straightforward style as her food and courts coverage, emphasizing dates, vote counts, closure status and who is responsible for next steps.
Taken together, Trufant’s work is defined by a combination of service-oriented food reporting and rigorous local news coverage, always anchored in specific places, events and decision points. She moves between a barbecue food truck, a chef’s television win, holiday trolley tours, criminal trials, drowning investigations, vandalism and property tax overrides without changing tone, maintaining concise, fact-heavy prose that allows the subject - rather than the writer - to set the story’s weight.
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.