We Are One Year Old
We couldn't have done it without you.
Happy Birthday to us! We launched Best Food Blog one year ago because we were fed up with how mainstream food media was run: hamstrung by advertiser compliance, beholden to SEO demands, easily swayed by the billionaire-backed algorithm of the day.
Since then, thanks to your support, we’re so proud to have published a roster of writers, chefs, authors, and food industry folks that we could only have dreamed of working with. We interrogated the industries of restaurant criticism and cookbook publishing. We turned inward to learn what our food dreams really mean. And we’ve snuck in a petty rant (or two) about the dire state of partying, snacking, and the depravity of AI slop.
This has been possible because of our readers and paid subscribers, our Friends and Best Friends, who have been onboard with us since launch day or found a story along the way that was compelling enough to want to click “subscribe.” To our paid subscribers, we'd love to hear your feedback: We've included a super quick survey at the end of this newsletter.
From all of us at BFB, thank you so much! (To our Frenemies lurking in the free previews of our newsletters, we see you and appreciate you too. That 14-day free trial is waiting for you.) We hope that you love Best Food Blog enough to share it around and help us grow and pursue more ambitious food journalism and writing in 2026.
To celebrate turning one year old, here are some of our favorite stories of the past year. And if you’re not a Friend yet, here’s what you’ve been missing.
Anna led an expert panel including Tejal Rao of The New York Times, Helen Rosner of The New Yorker, MacKenzie Fegan of The San Francisco Chronicle, and J. Lee of Interview and the newsletter Feed Me, on the evolving role of the restaurant critic, and whether restaurant criticism still matters. “I think that restaurant criticism is true shoe-leather reporting of a neighborhood, the ebbs and flows of real estate money, gentrification, immigration.”
Karen Yuan, former culture editor at Bon Appétit and editor at The Guardian, dug into why every finance bro is now a natural wine guy. “In New York, my home for the past decade, the wine bars are packed with Patagucci vests ordering ‘whatever’s funky’ or demurring ‘I’m more of a chilled red guy’ while everyone around the table nods.”
Writer of the newsletter Deez Links, former Vanity Fair reporter, and novelist Delia Cai waxed poetic on creating structure, order, and routine through a morning smoothie ritual. “I didn’t want to make a whole production out of this! A smoothie was supposed to be easy. The idea was to open my maw and simply swallow, without much tasting, all the vitamins and goodness I was owed. It was practically the American dream.”
Ali researched and reported on how polycules split the finances and labor of preparing meals. “There’s plenty of skepticism (and downright ire) online around polyamory, but something that came through clearly during all of my conversations was how harmonious many of these homes seem. ‘There is very little jealousy,’ says Kitty. ‘We share everything. It’s our house, our cars, our kids, our problems. We succeed or fail together.’”
Jaya Saxena, IACP Award-winning and James Beard Award-nominated writer, and series editor of The Best American Food and Travel Writing, got into what Erewhon, and wellness-washed marketing as a whole, really promises. “The same culture that produced these smoothies and that is marketing these smoothies as healthy, is the same culture that is critiquing them for being actually not healthy on all these measures.”
Antara wrote about how our techno-optimism in the world of fake meat is rapidly waning. “Without getting too into the weeds of how this dovetails with modern conservatism, it’s clear that a vision of a plant-based future, one led by alt-meat tech, is not in the current favor of the political and cultural zeitgeist. Beef is in again (even though it was never really out).”
Why are croissants $9? Recipe developer and executive chef Zoe Denenberg wrote about how much butter and labor it takes to make Instagram-ready bakery staples. “The croissant in and of itself is a study in extremes: Calling for exorbitant amounts of butter and a complicated layering technique called lamination, it’s one of the most difficult, time-consuming, and costly pastries to make. But in America, a claw of impeccably laminated pastry has never been enough.”
Megan Wahn, author of the newsletter Get Rec’d and former commerce editor at Condé Nast, wrote about why every food article on the internet these days seems to be riddled with ecommerce links. “We are tenant farmers, and we have elected to farm a plot of Google’s land. In other words, Google says ‘jump,’ and the publications ask ‘how high?’ and hope the subservience will win them the coveted top spot.”
Anikah talked to chefs and cookbook authors, Asma Khan, Ifrah F. Ahmed, and Fadi Kattan about what food media gets wrong about Ramadan. “I myself have been a part of many perfunctory attempts by food media brands to cover this month, which often boiled down to an obligatory listicle of vaguely Muslim-sounding recipes. That’s a real shame because the Muslim world is vast, diverse, and colorful, and so is our food. And there’s no better time to witness our multiplicity than this month.”
Why does everyone want to order last? Writer and columnist Maggie Hennessy wrote about the phenomenon (with some personal experience on the matter). “In the delicate matter of ordering dinner at restaurants, my husband opts, irritatingly, for chivalry. I feel his eyes on me the moment the server arrives with the inevitable question: ‘What are we having?’ Fortunately, I’m already jabbing a finger into his bicep: ‘You go!’”
