Lizzy Acker
Lizzy Acker blends service journalism with a playful curiosity about everyday life, using food, local businesses and social habits as a way into how people actually live. She writes for The Oregonian/OregonLive’s innovation team and authors the advice column “Why Tho?,” so her coverage ranges from ice cream and bakeries to etiquette, relationships and extreme weather, all with an accessible, conversational voice.
Food coverage with a focus on treats, seasons and local spots
Acker’s food writing leans toward approachable, high-interest topics: ice cream, baked goods and other treats that people seek out for pleasure rather than prestige. One recent piece brings together six Portland ice cream shops, one seasonal ingredient and a bunch of cherry desserts, framing the story around a single ingredient and using multiple local shops to show breadth and variety in the city’s offerings. Her work often spotlights specific bakeries and dessert destinations, and she collaborates with colleagues on surveys of standout suburban bakeries and other accessible food finds. Instead of deep dives into restaurant economics or chef profiles, she focuses on where to go, what to try and how a particular flavor or season is showing up across the city’s food scene, making her food coverage useful for readers looking for ideas and inspiration rather than industry analysis.
Advice, etiquette and everyday social dilemmas
Through her “Why Tho?” advice column, Acker regularly tackles social and relationship questions that emerge in ordinary life, including situations that intersect with hospitality, hosting and shared domestic spaces. One installment addresses a reader who feels stuck as the “social director” for a spouse’s college friends who are new in town, unpacking expectations, boundaries and obligations in a straightforward, empathetic style. Across the column archive, she deals with questions about interpersonal friction, household norms and modern etiquette, often using specific reader scenarios to surface broader themes about communication and respect. The tone is direct and informal, and the structure is simple: she restates the problem clearly and then offers concrete guidance, making the column feel like a practical extension of the way she covers day-to-day life in her reported pieces.
Innovation team reporting on weather, cars and everyday city life
As part of The Oregonian/OregonLive’s innovation team, Acker’s reporting spans beyond food into coverage of extreme weather, car-related topics and other aspects of local life that affect how people move through their days. The innovation brief allows her to pick up stories that sit between hard news and lifestyle coverage, such as how major weather events or changing transportation patterns affect ordinary routines. Her pieces in this lane tend to be practical and reader-focused, emphasizing what residents need to know and how larger trends show up on the ground, rather than abstract policy or pure feature writing. This breadth means a single reporter profile can encompass ice cream guides, winter storms and car culture, but the through-line is consistent: she looks for the tangible, lived impact and translates it into clear, accessible prose.
Multiplatform presence and conversational style
Acker’s work extends onto audio and social platforms, reinforcing the conversational tone that runs through her food and advice coverage. She participates in The Oregonian’s “Beat Check” podcast, discussing topics such as taking your shoes off in other people’s homes, which mirrors the practical etiquette themes of her column. On social video platforms, she introduces herself plainly as a reporter for The Oregonian/OregonLive with an advice column, and she appears in pieces that explore local bakeries and other accessible food finds with a visual, personality-driven angle. This multiplatform presence supports a style that feels informal and personable even when she is providing structured guidance or reported service information, making her a fit for stories that benefit from a blend of concrete detail, local color and everyday voice.
4 more food journalists.
Al Culliton
Al Culliton is a writer and historian whose work focuses on the American cocktail as a living part of food and culture, using obscure, historic drinks to show how bars, spirits and cities change. They write reported features that trace how forgotten recipes move from old bar guides back onto modern menus, reconstructing how cocktails originally tasted and explaining how new builds reshape them. Their beat is revived classics, regional specialties and low-proof aperitifs, covered one drink at a time with close attention to specs, technique, glassware and service. They write about cocktails as cultural artifacts tied to specific communities and geographies, using single recipes to explore place, identity, regional traditions and diaspora histories. Across masthead work and recipe writing, they combine primary-source research with present-day reporting from working bars, in precise, accessible prose grounded in technical detail.
Alaina Chou
Alaina Chou stands out for rigorously testing food and kitchen products and turning those hands-on trials into clear shopping advice. She is a commerce writer at Bon Appétit and Epicurious, where she makes newsletters and shopping guides for home cooks. Her beat is food commerce, with coverage of air fryers, meal kits, protein powders, pepper grinders, electrolyte drinks, and cookbooks. She focuses on what is worth buying, how it performs, how it tastes, and how it fits daily routines and wellness. She also writes sale-driven lists and roundup pieces, and she has worked on Bon Appétit’s Feel Good Food Plan. Her reporting is practical, direct, and grounded in product testing.
Amadea Tanner
Amadea Tanner is a food journalist for Daily Meal whose distinct focus is food history, culinary nostalgia, and the way everyday dishes reveal broader cultural stories. She covers canned baked beans, boomer-era casseroles, cowboy trail food, and sailors’ rations to show how preservation, technology, labor, and survival shaped familiar staples. Her beat includes retro recipes, mid‑20th‑century home cooking, old-school ice cream flavors, and vintage cookbooks, treating them as records of household budgets and aspirations. She also reports on kitchen culture and domestic design, from breakfast alcoves and pie safes to milk doors and wall phones. Tanner investigates global dish origins and contested national claims in pieces on haggis and pavlova. Beyond Daily Meal, she has worked across food, travel, and sustainability, contributing to outlets including Atlas Obscura, Beau Monde Media, Yahoo, and Tasting Table.
Amanda Garrity
Amanda Garrity stands out for turning food, holidays, and family traditions into practical service stories that help readers plan specific celebrations. She is a lifestyle editor at TODAY.com and has more than seven years of experience as a lifestyle writer and editor, including five years on staff at Good Housekeeping, where she covered home, holidays, food, entertainment, and other lifestyle news. Her work also appears in consumer titles including Prevention, Men’s Health, Cosmopolitan, Redbook, and Best Products. Her beat centers on event-based menus, holiday explainers, and classic TV and film guides, with clear, list-driven reporting that gives readers specific dates, recipes, viewing options, and simple background for family planning.