Janelle Bitker

Senior Editor, Food and Wine at San Francisco Chronicle

senior editor food & wine @sfchronicle | send tips and pitches to [email protected]

Articles

S.F. Chronicle restaurant critic MacKenzie Chung Fegan wins James Beard Award

1 week ago | sfchronicle.com | Janelle Bitker

The James Beard Foundation has named San Francisco Chronicle Restaurant Critic MacKenzie Chung Fegan the winner of this year’s Emerging Voice award. The annual James Beard Awards are among the most prestigious in the food world, recognizing the best chefs, restaurateurs, cookbook authors and food journalists in the United States. The Emerging Voice award recognizes work of “immediate impact and lasting significance” by an individual who is relatively new to food journalism.
A green hummus from one of S.F.’s most famous restaurants

2 months ago | sfchronicle.com | Janelle Bitker

Greens, seen during lunch service in 2020, is famous for its pioneering vegetarian cuisine and stunning waterfront location. Stephen Lam/Special to The ChronicleFor decades at Greens, hummus was hummus. But the chickpea spread has seen new energy within the last few years, changing with the seasons like the rest of the menu at San Francisco’s pioneering vegetarian restaurant.
Zuni Cafe is one SF restaurant that's been on every Top 100 list

2 months ago | sfchronicle.com | Janelle Bitker

The San Francisco Chronicle published its first Top 100 in 1996 — with each restaurant chosen at the time, then-critic Michael Bauer wrote, “because it adds something special to the dining scene.”Nearly 30 years and a few critics later, that dining scene has changed drastically, but it remains just as special. To reflect it, we have a new Top 100. And remarkably, there is only one restaurant that has made the list every year. That restaurant is Zuni Café.
Our Top 100 Bay Area restaurants list is here. What did we miss?

2 months ago | sfchronicle.com | Janelle Bitker

The San Francisco Chronicle released its new Top 100 restaurants list this week, and we want to know what you think. Critics MacKenzie Chung Fegan and Cesar Hernandez spent more than a year eating around the Bay Area for research. In a region with so many great options, picking only 100 restaurants can feel like a grueling process. Inevitably, some strong contenders get left behind. Did your favorite get left off the list? Tell us about it. The Chronicle will report on the results next week.
Charles Phan Legacy Award goes to SF chef Pim Techamuanvivit

2 months ago | sfchronicle.com | Janelle Bitker

Beyond crowning a new class of Top 100 restaurants this week, the San Francisco Chronicle also introduced a new honor: the Charles Phan Legacy Award, intended to recognize a restaurateur for their impact on the Bay Area dining scene. Phan, the San Francisco chef behind the Slanted Door who died earlier this year, was famous for changing the way the mainstream American dining public saw Vietnamese food.
The 3 most delicious Bay Area cookbooks of the year

Dec 1, 2024 | sfchronicle.com | Janelle Bitker

Every fall, a glut of shiny new cookbooks hits the shelves. With hefty covers and beautiful photography, they make reliable gifts — though inevitably, some are better for coffee table display than actual kitchen use. These three new Bay Area cookbooks manage to be aesthetically pleasing objects, engaging reads, sources of inspiration and full of achievable, tasty recipes.
Daytrip, one of Bay Area's hottest restaurants, is closing

Nov 18, 2024 | sfchronicle.com | Janelle Bitker

Daytrip, the funky Oakland restaurant with a scene-stealing celery salad and a worker-centric ethos, is permanently closing next month. “The reality of it is that we’ve been operating a business model that we just can’t get to work, and we’ve been losing money — especially this year — at such a fast rate,” said Stella Dennig, who opened Daytrip with her husband, chef Finn Stern, in 2021. They’re planning to try a new restaurant concept in the same Temescal space next year.
A lush comfort food gets its own Bay Area restaurant

Nov 11, 2024 | sfchronicle.com | Janelle Bitker

MacKenzie Chung Fegan is busy recovering from all of the fine dining she’s been eating (see her definitive guide here, and gear up for another piece next week). So here’s her editor, Janelle Bitker, who forced her to eat far more tasting menus than one human probably should. On the main boba-filled drag near UC Berkeley, there’s a new restaurant specializing in a popular homestyle Indian dish: curd rice. The setup is Chipotle-like in its customization.
What to eat and drink in Santa Cruz, a California seaside gem

Mar 27, 2024 | sfchronicle.com | Elena Kadvany |Esther Mobley |Janelle Bitker

In Santa Cruz, it’s possible to roam a majestic redwood forest and watch famed surf breaks in the same day. Most visitors flock to the coastal city for its natural beauty. But Santa Cruz also boasts an energetic food and wine scene, if you know where to look. Avoid the tourist traps and instead tuck into Venezuelan arepas, Thai fried chicken and fresh ice cream laced with pink peppercorns.
Great gluten-free eating in the East Bay

Jan 14, 2024 | sfchronicle.com | Janelle Bitker

Here’s senior Food + Wine editor Janelle Bitker:My colleague Caleb Pershan put together an excellent guide to gluten-free eating in San Francisco last week. There was just one problem: What about the rest of the Bay Area? Well, that’s a lot of eating for one human to do! Allow me to fill in with some recommendations in Oakland and Berkeley.