Two Beard Noms Get Eng...Reassigned

Two Beard Noms & Eng Gets...Reassigned

Monica Eng, one of my favorite journalists in the city, cool gal and recipient of two well-deserved Beard nominations, is being reassigned off the food beat.

More here: http://blogs.menupages.com/chicago/2009/04/post_70.html

David "As heard on Twitter" Hammond

That's a shame. Every daily should be lucky enough to have a food writer with Monica's passion for the authentic and delicious. Until I came to Chicago and read Monica's work in the Trib, I always thought that the best food writers worked for alternative weekly papers.

In Chicago, we were forunate to have Monica in the Trib, Mike Sula in the reader and Michael Nagrant in New City. Let's hope that our other two excellent food writers don't get reassigned.

YourPalWill wrote:In Chicago, we were forunate to have Monica in the Trib, Mike Sula in the reader and Michael Nagrant in New City. Let's hope that our other two excellent food writers don't get reassigned.

I'm happy if they still have jobs.

Regards,

Johnny Apple did OK as a "non food writer." Maybe Monica can pull off a similar gig with the odd feature here and there.

BTW, remember when the poor state of Chicago food journalism was a regular topic here? Well, I was a loud critic, so let me say as loudly that things have changed for the better. I see an obvious symbiotic relationship among the papers and weeklies, the food internets, and the chefs as opening up the audience, subject matter, and word count. Far from upstaging or killing traditional media, LTH Forum and things like it have helped make print and broadcast food journalism better, with a better audience.

There's a nice mini-interview with her (and Phil V.) about their Beard award nominations at Menu Pages...

http://blogs.menupages.com/chicago/2009 ... monic.html

note the shoutouts for a large number of folks here, in one guise or another.

The good news is as a freelancer is I have no job to lose. The bad news is as a freelancer, my existence is tenuous at best. The really good news is that comments like these are the best kind of fuel to keep me going. Thank You.

I have devoted quite a few moments to thinking about Mike Sula without a pulpit (he's the guy who inspired me as much as any and the guide I often look to) and it makes me sweat to think of a day without him. Let's hope the Reader keeps things goin.

And also, let me say, I really do believe in the Newcity mission. I know it's not foremost on everybody's plate here or even within the city sometimes, but editor/publisher Brian Hieggelke has been a really good steward and often a visionary when it comes to putting out a local publication.

He's been very smart and taken chances by publishing hugely original voices we've come to grow and love (Chris Ware for example). Newcity's Ray Pride is one of the smartest film writers in the country if you ask me. And his food stuff, when he used to do it, was incredible.

The first person account by Alexis Thomas growing up the daughter of one of Chicago's supreme purveyors of punk published by Newcity last week was the kind of piece most publications would never run, because they'd write it off as indulgent first person pap. But the reality is if done right, that kind of story is important in capturing our cultural landscape as any "unbiased" fourth estate watchdog journalism, and this piece was. So I guess what I'm saying is pick up your free copy of the Chicago Reader and your Newcity or read on the web and keep supporting us as much as possible.

The Tribune can't find a space for one of the best food writers they have? The already poor wine and food coverage will continue to get worse. I read the Trib every day, and have since Royko left the Sun Times, but their food and wine coverage is a joke for a world class food/wine city like Chicago.

Sad news for Chicago food lovers...

Al Ehrhardt wrote:The Tribune can't find a space for one of the best food writers they have? The already poor wine and food coverage will continue to get worse. I read the Trib every day, and have since Royko left the Sun Times, but their food and wine coverage is a joke for a world class food/wine city like Chicago.

Sad news for Chicago food lovers...

This reminds me of Alvy Singer's line in Annie Hall: "There's an old joke - um... two elderly women are at a Catskill mountain resort, and one of 'em says, 'Boy, the food at this place is really terrible.' The other one says, 'Yeah, I know; and such small portions.' "