Pat Saperstein
Pat Saperstein blends entertainment journalism with food writing, treating restaurants, chefs and local dining culture as part of the same ecosystem as film, television and historic Hollywood. As a deputy editor at Variety, she oversees breaking news, film, Los Angeles local news, obituaries and restaurants while continuing a parallel career as a food writer and founder of the longtime blog EatingLA, which tracks “adventures in eating and exploring.”
Restaurants, food and beverages
Saperstein treats food coverage as another form of culture reporting, drawing out the personalities and obsessions that shape how chefs cook.
In her Variety piece on chef Sean Brock and his restaurant Darling, she frames the story around the five fats that define his fried chicken, his fixation on vinyl and even a “scary Dolly Parton story,” using culinary detail and personal anecdote to ground a chef profile in sensory specifics and pop-cultural references. Her professional profiles describe her as specializing in entertainment, film, food and beverages, underscoring that restaurant stories are a core part of her beat rather than a side assignment.
Beyond the trade press, Saperstein founded EatingLA, described as L.A.’s first food blog, and continues to use it to document “adventures in eating and exploring,” which signals a long-running interest in tracking how a city’s food scene evolves at street level.
That background informs her restaurant coverage for Variety, where she brings a blogger’s curiosity about new places and neighborhoods into a trade outlet focused on the entertainment business. Her food writing typically sits at the intersection of dining, personality and place rather than as formal criticism, an approach that distinguishes her from straight-review restaurant reporters.
Movies, TV and locations
At Variety, Saperstein holds a deputy film editor role, overseeing coverage of film alongside her work on restaurants and local news.
Her remit includes movies, TV and locations, which puts her at the nexus of production coverage and the physical spaces where the industry works and socializes. She writes and curates pieces that connect screen projects to their real-world contexts, whether that is a historic theater, a festival venue or a neighborhood that doubles as a backdrop.
Her byline has also appeared in the Chicago Tribune on pieces carrying Variety branding, including a weekly column in which “Variety selects the videos, games, apps, books, music and more you should know about each week,” and coverage around the film “Cleopatra” and its missed 50th anniversary celebration at Cannes. Those syndicated pieces highlight her role in curation and service journalism, selecting cross-media recommendations for an entertainment-savvy audience rather than filing single-title reviews.
Across this work, she moves fluidly between film and television coverage and the cultural byproducts that surround them, from home-viewing picks to event reports.
Obituaries, breaking news and industry remembrance
Saperstein’s editorial brief at Variety includes oversight of breaking news, obituaries and Los Angeles local news, which positions her at the point where fast-moving stories meet longer-view industry memory. Her obituaries work focuses on situating careers and contributions within the broader history of film and television, a responsibility that aligns with her described specialization in Hollywood history and “all things L.A.” That combination of deadline news judgment and historical framing is a recurrent thread in her work, whether she is editing a sudden breaking story or shaping a retrospective piece.
Earlier in her career, her byline on BroadwayStars on a piece titled “Timothy Busfield Faces Arrest Warrant for Child Sex Abuse Charges Involving Boy Actor” shows her experience handling sensitive, legally charged stories about actors and misconduct. That background, paired with her current role overseeing obituaries and breaking coverage, suggests a comfort with difficult subjects and a focus on clarity and context over embellishment.
L.A. culture, historic Hollywood and community stories
Across platforms, Saperstein’s coverage repeatedly returns to L.A. culture and historic Hollywood as recurring subjects. Her professional bios describe her as covering restaurants, “historic Hollywood” and “L.A. culture and more,” indicating that she treats the city’s geography, history and subcultures as an integrated beat rather than as separate silos. She writes about locations and organizations that sit at the intersection of entertainment and community life, such as an Every Day Action post thanking her for a Variety article that highlighted its Recycle-Ball Gala, which points to interest in grassroots and philanthropic initiatives connected to the industry.
Her work also extends to representation and audience perspectives, as seen in social-media discussion of a Variety article where “older women responded to a UK survey about representation,” touching on how films are cast and whose stories get told. Combined with her food and restaurant coverage, these pieces reflect a consistent concern with who is visible in entertainment spaces - on screen, at industry events and in the dining rooms and bars where the business gathers. Professionally, she is described as an online traffic builder with “eye-catching, provocative headlines and viral content,” suggesting that she combines that cultural focus with a digital editor’s instinct for packaging stories so they reach a wide readership.
Taken together, Saperstein’s work is defined less by a single medium than by a set of overlapping territories: food and drink, film and television, historic Hollywood, and L.A. culture. She covers chefs and restaurants with the same sense of context she brings to film history and industry news, making her coverage a fit for stories that live where dining, entertainment and local culture meet.
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.