This article explores the work of The Dallas Morning News' food team, highlighting their dedication to providing timely, insightful, and engaging coverage of North Texas' vibrant culinary landscape.
Hiroko Sekiguchi and her husband Chef Tatsuya Sekiguchi of Tatsu Dallas received one Michelin Star during the Michelin Guide Texas Ceremony on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024 in Houston. The award was one of the biggest stories in food news last year. Readers seem to appreciate the News' coverage, writes Public Editor Stephen Buckley.
As many of us have spent the past month feasting on tasty food and drink, we now step back to write about how a team ofjournalists spends its time and energy bringing us news about all things gastronomic in North Texas.The Dallas Morning News has more food writers on staff than at any time in the past 20 years. Along with Food and Events Editor Anna Butler, journalists Sarah Blaskovich, Claire Ballor and Imelda Garcia anchor content that includes a podcast, online newsletters and a weekly print section called Guide. This column looks at the whys and hows behind their work.North Texas is awash with influencers and others who write about the region’s food scene. That’s in part because there is so much to cover, including restaurant openings, food trends, hot new spots and venerable culinary treasures. Our region hosts some 15,000 eateries, including more than 9,000 in Dallas. Restaurants are big business too: In 2023, North Texas eateries made about $30 billion in revenue.The team must hustle to stay ahead of the competition with work that’s timely, smart, relevant, revealing and creative. The content is distinctive — and it is also among ‘You can tell a lot about a community from the food it has and doesn’t have, and by the restaurants that survive and don’t survive, and also those aspirational ones that open,” Butler says. She adds: “It’s a fun coverage area because there is actually a lot of breaking news.”On the news front, Butler and her team were especially busy last year, what with the coming of the Michelin Guide to Texas, which led to comprehensive coverage about both the inner workings and implications of that world-renowned institution. As usual, the staff also covered the State Fair, where food always takes center stage, and then churned out a plethora of holiday-related content. The death of legendary restaurateur Al Biernat in November also drew extensive coverage. Beyond all that, the team produced two weekly newsletters and 35 episodes of the podcast. The team isn’t just busy though; it is also defined by high standards. The reporters note, for example, that it isn’t unusual for restaurants they cover to assume that they expect free meals. Not so: They neither expect nor accept them. (Their meals are always a business expense.) “I always have people who hear what I do, and they say, ‘You just get paid to ,’” says Ballor, who has been on the food beat at The Dallas Morning News for six years.Ballor, who has also reported on real estate and government, takes this role no less seriously. She sees her job as helping people “understand, and have context for, the place where they live and the people they live around. ... It’s about helping people understand food and the systems around it.”, a group of foodies obsessed with dining at Michelin-starred restaurants all over world. One pair of Hungries spent $9,000 on a meal.took us behind the counter, as it were, to show how much rigor and effort it takes for an eatery to stay relevant after nearly three decades. Ballor’s reporting included vivid real-time, pre-dawn scenes.Butler says that story was especially challenging for Ballor because “You want it to feel familiar, but you also want to learn something. And you also don’t want it to be a cheerleader story.”Food reporting allows readers to see a different side of their neighbors, Garcia says. When she is out reporting, people also ask her about“It’s an opportunity to educate the community,” particularly when it comes to Hispanic culture and cuisine, she says. “We are bringing people another perspective of the newspaper, and the newspaper is giving the community a different perspective. It’s win-win, you know?” In 2025, Butler says, the team will keep doing work that’s surprising and engaging, even as they keep readers abreast of the region’s latest culinary trends and happenings.Stephen Buckley is a veteran journalist and journalism professor at Duke University. He serves as The Dallas Morning News public editor
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