Rhyma Castillo
Rhyma Castillo reports on fast-moving news and culture for the Express-News, with food coverage that ties restaurant scrutiny and consumer treats to wider questions of safety, price and public reaction. Her work moves between hard-news topics and accessible service pieces, so a story about ice cream or snacks sits alongside coverage of immigration protests or gun violence. Across beats, she focuses on what policies, prices and trends mean for everyday people, whether they are dining out, shopping for groceries or watching a controversy unfold online.
Restaurant inspections and food safety
Castillo covers restaurant inspection reports in detail, turning regulatory filings into clear service journalism for diners. In one recent piece, she reviews August health inspection data and identifies establishments that fell below an “A” grade, explaining that the Express-News examined restaurants scoring under 90 points. The story spotlights specific violations such as fly infestations and an ice machine coated in “black mold-like residue,” along with food temperature and storage problems, showing her attention to concrete, operational failures rather than abstract scores. She walks readers through which restaurants received scores of 75 or lower and why, connecting technical inspection language to practical implications for customers. This kind of work distinguishes her food coverage from more generic restaurant writing by rooting it in documentation, enforcement actions and public health concerns.
Consumer culture and trending food stories
Beyond inspections, Castillo reports on food as part of broader consumer culture, including pricing, product launches and social media reaction. Her author page highlights coverage of a Texas State Fair story where high prices prompted complaints that the event had become unaffordable, reflecting her habit of tracking how cost and value drive online backlash.
She writes about packaged snacks sold across major chains such as H‑E‑B, Target and Walmart, flagging what shoppers should watch for on store shelves and in their kitchens, which positions her as a useful guide to mass-market food products. Her food writing also extends to fun, comparative pieces, such as a jumbo cinnamon roll taste test that pits a well-known giant pastry against a newer contender at a local bakery, evaluating flavour and “bang for the buck” alongside portion size.
She covers seasonal ice cream flavours from major regional brands and treats them as cultural events as much as product news, underscoring her sense of food as part of shared experience rather than just a restaurant recommendation.
Politics, immigration and social issues
Castillo’s news coverage ranges well beyond food, and her author biography underscores extensive reporting on politics, immigration, climate change, gun violence and workers’ rights. A recent story about a new billboard criticizing a federal immigration detention facility focuses on child detention and the public campaign against the site, showing her willingness to foreground advocacy and civil rights concerns in her reporting. Earlier work on the Texas Renaissance Festival and the death of its “King,” George Coulam, combines legal and personal details with the cultural role of the festival, blending accountability reporting with coverage of a long-running community institution. Her professional profile notes that she has written on environmental racism and climate change, as well as gun violence, which aligns with this pattern of highlighting systemic inequities and their human impact. This breadth means that when Castillo writes about food or entertainment, it sits within a portfolio that already engages with policy, activism and structural issues.
Lifestyle, entertainment and digital trends
Castillo is described as a trending reporter and a member of the Express-News Digital Go Team, a role that emphasizes speed and versatility across topics. Her author bio notes that she excels in lifestyle and entertainment coverage, including music, television, video games, technology and relationships, pointing to a comfort with online culture and audience-driven stories. She has reported celebrity and sports-adjacent pieces, such as coverage of an unexpected reunion between former spouses Tony Parker and Eva Longoria, which demonstrates her ability to handle personality-driven stories that intersect sports, entertainment and nostalgia. Outside the Express-News, her freelance work for outlets such as Mic includes news, politics, lifestyle and entertainment reporting with a stated focus on advocating for underserved communities, reinforcing the themes of representation and access that run through her harder news pieces. Across these lifestyle and entertainment stories, she treats viral moments, creative work and relationship narratives as serious subjects worth clear explanation, which helps her connect food and culture coverage to the same digital-first sensibility.
Taken together, Castillo’s work is defined by a blend of documented detail and cultural context: she is as comfortable listing inspection violations and price points as she is exploring how detention, environmental racism or entertainment controversies resonate with audiences. For stories about food, restaurants or consumer products, she stands out when a pitch can connect with inspection data, pricing debates, online conversation or broader questions about who benefits and who is left out.
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.