Stephen Fries
Stephen Fries is a food and culinary travel columnist whose work connects recipes, restaurant kitchens and destinations with a hospitality insider’s eye. He focuses on accessible dishes, classic American treats and regional specialties, treating food as both everyday comfort and a way to understand place. His columns for the New Haven Register and suburban newspapers blend clear, step-by-step guidance with context about chefs, ingredients and local food culture.
On the Food Scene
Fries built a long-running food column at the New Haven Register, serving as the masthead’s food voice for more than a decade. He is described as having been the Register’s food columnist for 12 years, and he continues that work as a food and culinary travel columnist for several suburban newspapers in Pennsylvania. Across these outlets he writes regular features that mix recipes, culinary history and profiles of eateries, giving readers a recurring guide to what and where to eat. His background as professor emeritus and former coordinator of hospitality management programs informs the way he explains technique and menu design, grounding his columns in professional kitchen practice. The “On the Food Scene” branding used for his work underscores that he is not just sharing recipes, but mapping a broader dining landscape.
A sweet celebration of ice cream
Fries often uses iconic treats and holidays as a way into food stories, as seen in his feature on celebrating America and one of its favorite summer treats and his Times Herald column “A sweet celebration of ice cream.” In these pieces he highlights the appeal of familiar desserts, then layers in history, local producers and serving ideas to show how a simple scoop or cone reflects broader culinary traditions. He treats ice cream as a lens on American summertime culture, featuring regional parlors, flavor trends and nostalgic memories while still giving readers practical information about where to go and what to order. Similar holiday-oriented work, such as his coverage of Passover dishes, extends this approach to religious and seasonal meals, helping readers expand their repertoire with recipes that carry meaning beyond the plate.
The tone stays practical and welcoming, aiming to encourage readers to try something new rather than simply admire it from afar.
Buckwheat an easy to grow, inexpensive ingredient
Ingredient-focused columns are another hallmark of Fries’s work, exemplified by “Buckwheat an easy to grow, inexpensive ingredient.” He highlights affordable, sometimes overlooked staples, explaining why they matter, how they are grown and how home cooks can use them in everyday meals. In the buckwheat piece he emphasizes ease of cultivation and low cost, then turns to cooking applications, reflecting a broader commitment to making good food attainable rather than aspirational. That balance of background and utility mirrors his hospitality teaching, with clear directions that demystify techniques and encourage experimentation in the home kitchen.
By treating ingredients like subjects in their own right, he shows readers that understanding food starts with knowing the building blocks of a dish.
New Haven, Conn., is great for a fall getaway
Fries extends his food coverage into travel, writing destination pieces such as “New Haven, Conn., is great for a fall getaway.” In that article he frames the city as a seasonal trip built around its dining scene, highlighting restaurants, bakeries and other food stops alongside cultural attractions.
His travel writing maintains the service tone of his recipe columns, offering concrete suggestions and itineraries rather than broad impressions. Biographical notes in these outlets describe him as a food and culinary travel columnist and as co-founder and host of “Worth Tasting,” a culinary walking tour and multi-day culinary adventures, which align with the way his articles organize travel around eating experiences.
Board service with a major culinary professional association further situates his travel pieces within a networked, industry-aware perspective on how destinations present their food.
Recipe for Ristorante Luce of Hamden’s soffritto
Fries’s interaction with local restaurants and readers is clear in columns like “Recipe for Ristorante Luce of Hamden’s soffritto,” which grew out of a reader’s request. He invites readers to send in questions and recipe wishes, then works with chefs to adapt restaurant dishes for home kitchens.
In the soffritto piece he explains the dish as a Neapolitan favorite and walks through each step of the preparation, translating a professional recipe into approachable instructions.
This format recurs across his work, where he features specific establishments, shares their signature dishes and provides enough detail for readers to reproduce the flavors at home. The combination of reader engagement, chef collaboration and careful instruction distinguishes his column from generic food coverage, turning it into an ongoing conversation between the local dining scene and home cooks.
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.