Notice anything different?
Kristen Browning-Blas, food editor for the past seven years, is trading electric for gas and turning her attention to reporting and writing, which is why she got into journalism in the first place.
And while she’s out digging up stories, I’ll be manning the day-to-day controls.
Kris created the food section you’ve come to know. Her simple, intelligent formula for a useful, inspiring section is brilliant. (Just ask the James Beard Foundation, which draped a medal around her deserving neck in 2006.)
But as brilliant as her editing was, her writing will be even more so. Check this week’s cover story for proof.
Follow Kris over the next few weeks as she digs into the world of restaurant inspections, takes stock of Denver’s soul food scene, and penetrates the mind of an undefeated pie-contest champion.
We’re also tossing a few new items onto our menu.
For starters, we’ve reorganized a little, consolidating our restaurant coverage up front and creating new space for ideas and recipes for what to cook, eat, drink, read and use at home.
We’re adding a new column by John Broening, crackerjack chef at Duo restaurant. He’ll give us a heads-up on the ingredients of the season, and razor-sharp tips on how to prepare them correctly, with a twist. First up, asparagus.
You’ve asked for more recipes: You got it. Every week we’ll have piles of idea-generating recipes, starting with this week’s steak techniques.
More dining coverage? You got it. Our new Eat Local feature profiles a neighborhood restaurant — this week we travel to the outskirts of Longmont for a diner nosh — and we’ll continue to cast a critical eye to restaurants twice a month with starred reviews.
More on the local food scene? You got it. This week Doug Brown wades into Stranahan’s, a Denver whiskey distillery, for one of their legendary bottling parties.
One of the many hilarious things about our jobs is when a reader calls with a question about cooking, or drinks mixing, or where to take a date for dinner in such-and-such a neighborhood, and the question stumps us.
Kris and I look at each other with a “we really should know this, shouldn’t we?” kind of grin.
But we really shouldn’t know everything. We can’t. No one can.
And no one does.
The food world is a strange one, a smarter-than-thou place where everyone knows everything, everyone’s eaten everywhere, and everything’s been done already. Asking questions can be interpreted as a sign of naivete, inferiority, ignorance.
But Kris and I think asking questions is just the opposite. It’s a sign of curiosity.
We produce this section for the same reason that you read it — not because we know everything, but because we are curious. Every day, we want to learn something more, and every day, we do.
It’s why we love food in the first place. There’s always something you didn’t know.
