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Here are Your Must-Reads: The 2019 Journalism Award Nominees

JBF Editors

April 05, 2019

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Food media has never felt more relevant. Political tensions across the globe may be rising, issues of culture, identity, and ethnicity are ever-more fraught, but  asking questions about the food we cook and eat has proven increasingly valuable as a way to connect and understand the world around us. Whether you're looking for the latest restaurant review from a trusted source, or are simply curious about how Chinese food became the Christmas day meal de rigeur for Jews, this year's Journalism Award nominees offer indispensable insights into the ingredients that make up our food system.

Read all the exciting pieces from our nominees below*, and be sure to follow us on Friday, April 26, when we announce the winners at the Media Awards in New York City.

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Columns
America’s Best Worst Cook: “Hi, I’m America’s Best Worst Cook”; “Dear Chefs, Will Eating This Kill Me?” and “How to Roast a Chicken? The Answers Are Horrifying.
JJ Goode
Taste

Local Fare: “The Question of Dinner”; “Dixie Vodka”; and “Folk Witness”
John T. Edge
Oxford American

What We Talk About When We Talk About American Food: “The Pickled Cucumbers That Survived the 1980s AIDS Epidemic”; “A Second Look at the Tuna Sandwich’s All-American History”; and “Freedom and Borscht for Ukrainian-Jewish Émigrés
Mari Uyehara
Taste

Craig Claiborne Distinguished Restaurant Review Award
Counter Intelligence: “The Hearth & Hound, April Bloomfield’s New Los Angeles Restaurant, Is Nothing Like a Gastropub”; “There’s Crocodile and Hog Stomach, but Jonathan Gold Is All About the Crusty Rice at Nature Pagoda”; and “At Middle Eastern Restaurants, It All Starts with Hummus. Jonathan Gold says Bavel’s Is Magnificent
Jonathan Gold
Los Angeles Times

The Fire Gods of Washington, D.C.”; “David Chang’s Majordomo Is No Minor Feat”; and “North America’s Best Cantonese Food Is in Canada
Bill Addison
Eater

 “The Four Seasons Returns. But Can It Come Back?” “Why David Chang Matters”; and “A Celebration of Black Southern Food, at JuneBaby in Seattle
Pete Wells
The New York Times

Dining and Travel
Chau Down: “A New Orleans Food Diary”; “A Portland Food Diary”; and “A Chicago Food Diary
Danny Chau
The Ringer

Dim Sum Is Dead, Long Live Dim Sum
Max Falkowitz
Airbnb Magazine

Many Chinas, Many Tables
Jonathan Kauffman and Team
San Francisco Chronicle

Feature Reporting
Big in Japan
Tejal Rao
The New York Times Magazine

“A Kingdom from Dust”
Mark Arax
The California Sunday Magazine

Shell Game: Saving Florida’s Oysters Could Mean Killing a Way of Life
Laura Reiley and Eve Edelheit
Tampa Bay Times

Food Coverage in a General Interest Publication
New York Magazine
Robin Raisfeld, Rob Patronite, Maggie Bullock, and the Staff of New York Magazine

Roads & Kingdoms
Nathan Thornburgh, Matt Goulding, Anup Kaphle, and the Roads & Kingdoms Team

T: The New York Times Style Magazine
Kurt Soller, Hanya Yanagihara, and the Staff of T Magazine

Foodways
Back to Where It All Began: I Had Never Eaten in Ghana Before. But My Ancestors Had."
Michael W. Twitty
Bon Appétit

A Hunger for Tomatoes
Shane Mitchell
The Bitter Southerner

What is Northern Food?
Steve Hoffman
Artful Living

Health and Wellness
Clean Label’s Dirty Little Secret
Nadia Berenstein
The New Food Economy

The Last Conversation You’ll Ever Need to Have About Eating Right” and “The Last Conversation You’ll Need to Have on Eating Right: The Follow-ups”
Mark Bittman and David L. Katz
New York Magazine / Grub Street

“‘White People Food’ Is Creating An Unattainable Picture Of Health
Kristen Aiken
HuffPost

Home Cooking
Melissa Clark’s Thanksgiving
Melissa Clark
The New York Times

The Subtle Thrills of Cold Chicken Salad
Cathy Erway
Taste

Top Secret Ingredients
Kathleen Purvis
Garden & Gun

Innovative Storytelling
In Search of Water-Boiled Fish
Angie Wang
Eater

100 Most Jewish Foods
Alana Newhouse, Gabriella Gershenson, and Stephanie Butnick
Tablet Magazine

What’s in a Food Truck?
Bonnie Berkowitz, Seth Blanchard, Aaron Steckelberg, and Monica Ulmanu
The Washington Post

Investigative Reporting
“‘It's Not Fair, Not Right’: How America Treats Its Black Farmers
Debbie Weingarten and Audra Mulkern
The Guardian and the Economic Hardship Reporting Project

A Killing Season
Boyce Upholt
The New Republic

Victims Blame FDA for Food-Recall Failures
Christine Haughney Dare-Bryan
Politico

Jonathan Gold Local Voice Award
Storied Ovens”; “Food Outside the U.S. Open Gates”; and “A New Destination for Chinese Food: Not Flushing, but Forest Hills
Max Falkowitz
The New York Times; Plate Magazine

My Dinner at the Playboy Club”; “Curry and Roti Destination Singh’s Lights Up Queens”; and “Where New Yorkers Actually Eat in Times Square
Robert Sietsema
Eater NY

Yes Indeed, Lord: Queen’s Cuisine, Where Everything Comes from the Heart”; “Top 10 New Orleans Restaurants for 2019”; and “Sexual Harassment Allegations Preceded Sucré Co-Founder Tariq Hanna’s Departure
Brett Anderson
Nola.com | The Times-Picayune

M.F.K. Fisher Distinguished Writing Award
“A Kingdom from Dust”
Mark Arax
The California Sunday Magazine

The Poet’s Table
Mayukh Sen
Poetry Foundation

What Is Northern Food?
Steve Hoffman
Artful Living

Personal Essay, Long Form
I Made the Pizza Cinnamon Rolls from Mario Batali’s Sexual Misconduct Apology Letter
Geraldine DeRuiter
Everywhereist.com

Need to Find Me? Ask My Ham Man
Catherine Down
The New York Times

Writing an Iranian Cookbook in an Age of Anxiety
Naz Deravian
The Atlantic

Personal Essay, Short Form
Doritos is Developing Lady-Friendly Chips Because You Should Never Hear a Woman Crunch
Maura Judkis
The Washington Post
 
I’m a Chef with Terminal Cancer. This Is What I’m Doing with the Time I Have Left
Fatima Ali
Bon Appétit

Savoring the School Lunch
Rebekah Denn
The Seattle Times

Profile
Heaven Was a Place in Harlem
Vince Dixon
Eater

The Short and Brilliant Life of Ernest Matthew Mickler
Michael Adno
The Bitter Southerner

‘You Died’: The Resurrection of a Cook in the Heart of SF’s Demanding Culinary Scene
Jonathan Kauffman
San Francisco Chronicle

Wine, Spirits, and Other Beverages
The Gulp War
Dave Stroup
Eater

‘Welch’s Grape Jelly with Alcohol’: How Trump’s Horrific Wine Became the Ultimate Metaphor for His Presidency
Corby Kummer
Vanity Fair

Why Is the Wine World So Un-Woke?
Jon Bonné
Punch

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*Nominated pieces without links did not provide urls for viewing their materials.