Dear Readers,
It saddens me to inform you that I will be leaving my position as YUM Editor for Buffalo Rising.
I began my career with Buffalo Rising a couple of years ago as a 'citizen journalist' after a lengthy discussion with Newell (queenseyes) about restaurants, chefs and local ingredients. Shortly thereafter I was brought on as YUM's full time editor. Some of you emailed me when you noticed a change in YUM a few months ago, when fewer new posts were appearing due to cutbacks. Today I am announcing that YUM will transition into a channel much like our City and Arts & Leisure channels—run predominately by citizen journalists.
Touting Buffalo's ever-improving food community, working closely with farmers, chefs, business owners and other writers, as well as interacting with many of YUM's readers, has been remarkable and rewarding for me both personally and professionally.
I will forever appreciate the moments when gracious chefs allowed me to stand in their bustling kitchens with my camera poised, or engaged me in fascinating one-on-one conversations about sustainable agriculture, Buffalo's dining culture and movements in contemporary cuisine. It has been a great privilege to spend time with both young families that have courageously embraced farming as a way of life and many of our region's more wizened farmers, men who work the same land that their great-grandfathers once did. Meeting people who are running exemplary businesses of all sizes, passionately producing quality products--be it jam or cookies, wine or strawberries, bread or chocolate--has also been enjoyable. Perhaps most exciting of all was spotlighting and promoting area restaurants and chefs that are exceeding the Buffalo standard. I hope that sharing these experiences with you has served you some purpose as well, whether it imparted knowledge, helped to foster an appreciation for the bounty that is Western New York, or simply introduced you to a new restaurant, product or favorite recipe.
One of the best parts of my job—and sometimes one of the most challenging—has been working with readers. I've had people email me from all over the world with questions about cuisine here in Buffalo. They may be coming for a visit and are looking for a great restaurant or one that can accommodate a specific dietary restriction. They may have found us through a Google search about a particular food item or event that we have spotlighted here on YUM. They may be an ex-pat that's cooking professionally somewhere else in the country but wishing to keep a finger on the pulse of dining in Western New York. A few have become friends while others have offered information, inspiration and support. Salamooch, DougK, Simcoe, RisingDamp666, Hoss—thank you.
I should also mention what a pleasure it has been to meet many of BR’s YUM readers at our Foodie Book Club get-togethers (look for an upcoming article in a nationally circulated magazine about our food-centric book club and the few others around the country like it), our chocolate and sushi events at the Executive Performance Center, the Wintermarket, Elmwood-Bidwell Farmers Market and well, just about everywhere else I go. People like you are what make YUM tick and Buffalo a fantastic city to live in.
The list of people that I should thank is too long for this post (and I’m likely to forget someone important), but let me give a special thank you to those that have always been ready to accept a challenge, answer a question, or participate in one of my crazy ideas. They are (in no particular order): Erin and Tucker Curtin (The Steer, Dug's Dive and The Lake Effect Diner), Marla and Jim Guarino (Shango), Chef Roo Buckley and his lovely wife, Keren (The Coda), Cindy, JJ, and Kevin Richert (Torches), Jen and Adam Goetz (SAMPLE), Sandy Starks, David Setzer and Brian Mahoney (Slow Food Buffalo) and YUM's dedicated writers, including friends Sarah Rose Stone, Michael Franco, Joseph DiDomizio, Laura Anhalt, Adam Fix and Rachel Dominguez. With love and admiration, an especially ridiculous amount of gratitude is owed to my co-worker, cohort, and fellow foodie, Courtney Bajdas, who has faithfully completed every single harebrained task I have ever asked of her with professionalism, intelligence, humor, grace and tremendous patience.
Finally, a special nod should go out to those commentors that have spent months (and in some cases, years) skewering me and other writers online here at YUM, you keep us on our toes and make us laugh. Deliking/Viking and Brian Horvath, your devoted readership--in spite of your intense dislike for us--is to be admired.
As for the rest of our dear readers, as Buffalo foodies I urge you to please consider joining Slow Food Buffalo or the soon-to-emerge Buy Fresh Buy Local campaign. I feel that both organizations are moving toward affecting real change in WNY's food culture, and they could both use a few more excited, engaged and motivated foodies in their effort toward making a viable, accessible, sustainably farmed, year-round local food supply a reality.
At the urging of my BR colleagues, I will continue to occasionally post on Buffalo Rising, but I'm afraid it won't be nearly as often as I'd like it to be. I'm not sure where I'll end up, but my greatest hope is to find another way to help build Buffalo through its amazing food legacy, agricultural bounty and those who are dedicated to preserving, repairing and improving the Western New York food chain. Keep an eye on www.FeedYourSoulBuffalo.com for updates. Also, please feel free to contact me directly.
Most importantly of all, please continue to support local restaurants and food artisans with your mouth and your money.
Happy eating!
Christa
*"So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish" is the fourth book of the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" series written by Douglas Adams. Its title is the message left by the dolphins when they departed Planet Earth just before it was demolished to make way for a hyperspatial express route, as described in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy".--excerpted from Wikipedia.org