Ryan Gillin
Ryan Gillin tells Oklahoma’s food stories for News On 6, focusing on short television and digital pieces built around the people behind local restaurants and bakeries. He is a key voice in the station’s Flavor Of Oklahoma coverage, which highlights restaurants, chefs and food traditions across the state rather than just listing places to eat. His work leans on history, legacy and personal detail, turning food segments into profiles of the businesses and families that run them.
Flavor Of Oklahoma
Flavor Of Oklahoma is the recurring frame for much of his food reporting. Under that banner, he visits restaurants and food businesses and shows what makes them part of Oklahoma’s culture, from their menus to their backstories. His pieces on Saint Amon Baking Company, The Brook, Arnold’s Old-Fashioned Hamburgers, Common Tart, Pete’s Place, Wanda J’s Next Generation and Que Gusto each bring out a specific story: a decade of French pastry craft, a 30-year neighborhood staple, a hamburger stand that has changed little in nearly 40 years, a family pie bakery, a century-old Italian restaurant, a soul food institution with 50 years of roots, and a Latin American empanada shop in an arts district. Across these segments he returns to a consistent approach: simple descriptions of food and place, paired with clear timelines and owner voices that show how long a business has served its community.
Comfort Food And Long-Running Kitchens
Gillin often focuses on comfort food and kitchens with long histories.
His coverage of The Brook frames the restaurant as a comfort food anchor that has been part of its neighborhood for three decades. His pieces on Arnold’s Old-Fashioned Hamburgers and Coleman's Hamburger and Bakery stress that many recipes and methods have stayed the same for decades, and that this continuity is central to their appeal. When he profiles Wanda J’s Next Generation, he emphasizes home-style breakfasts and weekday lunch specials as part of a 50-year soul food lineage that continues to attract both long-time and new customers.
The recurring theme is stability: he shows how these businesses keep menus and traditions steady while serving generations of diners.
Bakeries, Cafés And Global Flavors
Alongside classic diners and burger spots, he gives space to bakeries, cafés and global comfort food.
His Saint Amon Baking Company segment focuses on croissants and other French pastries, tying technique and authenticity to a decade of work at the bakery. His visit to Common Tart centers on homemade pies and seasonal flavors, positioning the shop as a place where a family turns baking into a business. In his coverage of Que Gusto, he presents Latin American flavors through empanadas and a walkable arts district setting, showing how a small shop expands the local food landscape.
In his story on Natsukashii, he extends that approach to Japanese comfort food from breakfast through dinner, using the menu to show how a single restaurant adds another layer to downtown dining. These pieces show that he treats international and specialty spots with the same attention to owners, recipes and context that he brings to long-established Oklahoma institutions.
Business Stories And Community Features Beyond Food
Gillin also takes on business and community stories that connect indirectly to food or sit outside it.
He has reported on friends turning grief and friendship into a business as they prepare to audition for “Shark Tank,” framing the story around entrepreneurship and personal motivation. He has told the story of an eighth-grade student in Owasso who spent two years writing a novel that went on to be published, following the student through the school setting and into the world of books and imagination. He has highlighted corporate environmental stewardship work in a way that allowed a communications lead to explain broader sustainability efforts to viewers.
These pieces show that, while his primary focus is food, he is comfortable with character-driven business and community features in other areas, keeping the same straightforward, narrative style he uses in Flavor Of Oklahoma.
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.