Associate Restaurant Critic

This is a Full Time Job

Associate Restaurant Critic

The Chronicle food team's mission is to provide the most engaging and influential coverage of the Bay Area's food and drink culture, one of the most dynamic in the country. The team reports with accuracy and depth, tells stories through vivid and entertaining language, and critiques with insight and flair. It breaks news - then pulls off in-depth coverage of trends, people and issues. The team also knows how to make our audiences salivate. A deep love of all things food and drink, and the joy these can bring to inform our coverage.

The Associate Restaurant Critic is a reporter, writer, and food lover with a passion for informing people on the best food to eat in the Bay Area. This versatile journalist should be as interested in working on service-driven coverage - like the ones from our flagship Top Restaurants program or a guide like our Best Day Ever series - as they are writing features about the food and drink world, including t rend stories , in-depth profiles, and essays about $72 fried rice. Forget old-school ideas of a newspaper restaurant critic filing a review of a single restaurant once a week. This journalist should be comfortable pitching a variety of stories, experimenting with digital storytelling format, and changing course when necessary.

This role will primarily focus on finding stories in Bay Area cities outside of San Francisco, with an eye on cities in the East Bay (beyond hot spots such as Oakland and Berkeley) and the South Bay. They will work closely with The Chronicle's restaurant critic Soleil Ho and the rest of the Food & Wine team to highlight the best that the region has to offer.

We're seeking a self-starter with high standards who has excellent communication skills, is comfortable providing and taking feedback, is committed to inclusive journalism, and wants to own the stories that matter most.

What You Will Do
• Dine in the Bay Area, with a focus on cities outside of San Francisco, Oakland

• Berkeley, to determine the best food and drink in the region.

• Write and collaborate on the Top Restaurants program with restaurant critic Soleil Ho

• Pitch and report stories about new food and drink happenings within your geographic coverage area for SFChronicle.com and The San Francisco Chronicle to help define what's important about the dining scene in the Bay Area.

• Write opinion-based pieces about food and drink.

• Collaborate with the rest of the newsroom for photography, design, and digital publishing

• schedules.

• Work with the rest of the food team on group projects about the dining scene.

• Help produce food stories online, including writing for off-platform venues such as social media and newsletters.

• In your application, please include links or PDFs of at least three writing samples that you're proud of!

What It Will Take To Be Successful
• At least three years of journalism experience, with food and drink experience strongly preferred.

• Strong news judgment, creativity and meticulousness.

• Comfort with expressing strong opinions.

• Excellent organizational and time management skills.

• Passion for food and drink.

• Knowledge of multimedia storytelling, social media engagement and other strategies to broaden readership.

• Ability to collaborate with all newsroom teams and work in a fast-changing environment

Requirements
• This position is full-time.

• The successful candidate must be based in the Bay Area or willing to move to the region.

• Must be comfortable with traveling around the Bay Area.

About The San Francisco Chronicle And SFChronicle.com

The San Francisco Chronicle is world-class journalism. With name-brand voices and a keen editorial eye, The Chronicle is an authority that still surprises. The Chronicle, one of the largest news organizations in the West, has been named California's best large newsroom for four of the past five years.

SFChronicle.com delivers the Bay Area's best journalism. It is the Bay Area's authoritative online news source, focused on San Francisco but inclusive of all California and Western news that reflects the unique Bay Area experience. The staff won ONA Online Journalism Awards for General Excellence in 2020 and for Breaking News coverage in 2019 and 2020.

As part of its continued efforts to maintain a safe workplace for employees, Hearst Newspapers requires that all employees who receive a written offer of employment on or after November 12, 2021, be fully vaccinated (as defined by the CDC) against the coronavirus by the first day of employment as a condition of employment, to the extent permitted by applicable law. Hearst Newspapers will consider requests for reasonable accommodations due to medical , including pregnancy or a pregnancy-related condition, and/or religious reasons on an individual basis in accordance with applicable legal requirements.