Brett Anderson has the journalism job many salivate for. Since 2019 he has been a food correspondent for The New York Times, traveling the country in search of restaurants to recommend in cities and towns we all should take time to visit. The lists include both well-known spots and those still flying under the radar. He has also written some meaty investigative articles addressing labor issues within the restaurant industry that grab headlines.
From 2000 to 2019, Anderson was restaurant critic and features writer for The Times Picayune in New Orleans. During his tenure at the newspaper, he won three James Beard Foundation Journalism Awards along with the Jonathon Gold Local Voice Award. Anderson was named Eater’s Reporter of the Year in 2017 for his reporting on sexual harassment in the restaurant industry.
Equally impressive is his work covering environmental stories in his home state of Louisiana. From his official bio: “He was on the Times-Picayune staff awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2006, for coverage of Hurricane Katrina; a co-recipient of the Scripps Howard Edward J Meeman Award for environmental reporting, for coverage of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill; and a member of the 2013 Neiman Fellowship class at Harvard University. In 2015, Brett received the Excellence in Journalism Award from the Renewable Natural Resources Foundation for “Louisiana Loses Its Boot,” a story about the state’s disappearing coastline.”
Brett Anderson grew up in Minnesota and developed his curiosity about food at a young age.
Unlike many writers who take the journalism school route to land their first reporting job, Anderson took an alternative path. Initially interested in writing about music, he began his career writing for alternative weekly newspapers in his native Minneapolis and Washington, DC, working under the editor, David Carr, who became a valuable mentor. Carr assigned Anderson a food and restaurant beat at the Washington City Paper. The rest is history.
Anderson has evolved into one of the country’s leading food journalists. He delivers insights on dining out, from places to trends. Read his recent New York Times story on “’Bromakase’ Is the New Steakhouse.”). And he goes back of the house to deliver stories that show the test of human nature in an industry that has had its challenges, from the COVID-19 pandemic closures and rising rent and food costs to creating a livable wage and equitable and humane workplace for staff.
He is recipient of three James Beard Foundation Awards for outstanding journalism. In 2005 he was awarded for his oral history on Chef Paul Prudhomme and 2008 for a series on Mandina’s destruction during Hurricane Katrina and its road to recovery (still one of our favorite local restaurants). In 2018 he received the JBF Jonathon Gold Local Voice Award which recognizes writers for telling stories about their local cities and regions. Anderson received a JBF Award nomination for his 2018 investigation into the culture of workplace harassment at (the former) Besh Restaurant Group. His story about P & J Oyster Company’s struggles in the aftermath of the BP oil spill was nominated in 2012.
Here is a link to Brett Anderson’s articles for The New York Times
And here is a link to our podcast with him.