Silvana Franco
Silvana Franco is a freelance food writer, editor and stylist at The Telegraph who focuses on simple, achievable recipes that maximise flavour without demanding elaborate skills or budgets. Her coverage is distinguished by its emphasis on practicality and everyday cooking, turning classic comfort dishes and seasonal ingredients into accessible, repeatable recipes for home cooks. She writes in a direct, reassuring style that favours short ingredient lists, clear techniques and a strong sense of pleasure in cooking and eating.
Everyday recipes built for home cooks
Franco’s work for The Telegraph centres on recipes that are specifically designed for the home kitchen, often using five or a small handful of ingredients to keep preparation straightforward. In pieces such as her summer dessert recipes, she shows how to assemble crowd-pleasing sweets from minimal components, focusing on texture, flavour contrasts and make-ahead ease. Her dishes are typically framed around what readers can cook “all summer long” or for weekend meals, signalling an emphasis on repeatable, seasonal cooking rather than one-off showpieces. Across her body of work, she consistently works within constraints — limited time, modest budgets, ordinary equipment — and treats them as creative prompts rather than limitations.
Comfort food and honest indulgence
Alongside straightforward weeknight recipes, Franco often leans into comfort food and unapologetic indulgence. In The Telegraph’s bacon coverage, she contributes pieces that highlight dishes she “wouldn’t make… any other way,” underlining her view that certain ingredients, like bacon or soft sliced white bread, have a rightful place in the kitchen when pleasure is the goal. Her storytelling around these foods focuses on taste, nostalgia and satisfaction rather than strict health rules or trend-chasing. This balance between realism and enjoyment marks her out from more austere or purely health-driven food writing, making her recipes and features feel rooted in how people actually eat.
Budget-conscious, accessible cooking
Franco’s broader professional work reinforces the same focus on accessibility. She describes herself as a freelance food writer who loves to create recipes “that anyone can cook on a limited budget,” and this budget-aware lens runs through her approach to ingredients and method. She favours pantry staples, supermarket-available produce and familiar flavour combinations, showing readers how to get the most out of ordinary shopping baskets. Her recipes often foreground value without compromising on comfort or flavour, positioning her as a useful voice for readers looking to cook well without spending heavily.
Multi-platform food writer and stylist
Beyond The Telegraph, Franco writes and styles food for a range of UK outlets, including newspaper food sections and major recipe sites. She brings over three decades of experience in food writing and styling, which is visible in the way her recipes are presented and photographed, with an emphasis on dishes that look inviting but achievable. She also takes part in wider food culture, serving as a judge for tasting awards and engaging with other writers and cooks through guilds and events, which keeps her close to contemporary conversations about flavour, tradition and the role of home cooking. Across platforms, she maintains a consistent identity as a practical, flavour-first food writer whose work is centred on recipes and techniques that fit smoothly into everyday life.
4 more food journalists.
Adam Maidment
Adam Maidment is a senior What's On and LGBTQ+ reporter whose food and leisure coverage is built around immersive, first-person reporting and concrete detail. He works at the Manchester Evening News, focusing on new restaurant and bar openings, regular food reviews, gig and event coverage, and issues affecting LGBTQ+ people. He treats restaurants, pubs, bars and experiences as stories about place, people and community, explaining what makes a venue different and how it fits into the local dining scene. His pieces cover pricing, service, atmosphere, crowds and concept, and he is willing to be critical when gimmicks undermine the experience. He writes character-led pub profiles, works shifts, joins treasure hunts and attends major cultural events, inviting readers to follow what he does and use his straightforward assessments to decide where to eat, drink and spend time.
Alice Lorenzato-Lloyd
Alice Lorenzato-Lloyd is editor at Secret Manchester, where she treats food as part of how people live in the city, not as an isolated subject. She covers restaurants, bars, street food and casual dining, linking new openings and food trends to neighbourhood change, local businesses and everyday routines. Her pieces focus on accessible spots, comfort dishes like pizza and tacos, and clear details of menus, presentation, atmosphere and practical information such as opening hours and booking. She often combines food, drink and live events, producing guides to venues for major sports tournaments and themed pop-ups as part of wider things to do. Alice also reports on hospitality business pressures, city-centre public spaces, charity initiatives, transport and infrastructure, always showing how food and drink fit into community and lifestyle stories. She previously wrote for other regional “Secret” sites as a staff writer and describes herself as a writer and food fanatic.
Aly Walansky
Aly Walansky specializes in service-driven food coverage that treats cocktails and dining as tools for celebration, focusing on how logistics, ordering options, and menu choices turn everyday meals and major holidays into shared experiences. She is a longtime food and travel journalist now writing for Forbes, where her beat centers on cocktails and occasion-driven dining. Her work includes practical, expert-driven roundups such as guides to many variations on the classic martini, shipped-meals gift lists for Mother’s Day, and accessible formats for Thanksgiving and other holidays. She reports through structured lists, restaurant features, and menu-focused profiles that highlight signature dishes and dining trends. Across outlets, she extends this approach to home cooking, grocery shopping, and recipes, and runs a newsletter that shares her current assignments and industry commentary.
Ben Hurst
Ben Hurst joins food, entertainment and cost-of-living angles, treating cooking, groceries and celebrity stories as everyday decisions for readers. He is Head of Lifestyle and Money at WalesOnline, shaping practical, trending coverage that is tightly written, headline-led and easy to scan and share. His food reporting leans on TV chefs and supermarket behaviour, turning their advice and product changes into clear tips and consumer explainers focused on value for money and household budgets. He also writes extensively about TV and celebrity figures, using recognisable names to carry stories about health, family challenges, cancer treatment and resilience. Alongside these, he produces visual, nostalgia-driven galleries and concise explainers on wide-interest phenomena, drawing on a senior newsroom background that includes executive editor, video lead and news editor roles.