Metro | Food editor and restaurant critic

Metro magazine | Food editor and restaurant critic

Metro is Auckland's longest-running city magazine, covering food, culture and politics for a discerning monthly readership. Over three years – two in-house and a final year freelance – I worked first as digital editor, then food editor, writing and commissioning food and culture stories, shaping the magazine's food coverage, directing shoots and working across print, digital and commercial projects.

- Managed a team of writers and photographers
- Developed the food section's editorial direction
- Head judge for the Top 50 Restaurant Awards and other food panels
- Wrote restaurant reviews, features and guides
- Led judging and criteria development for the Top 50 awards
- Built and nurtured industry relationships to secure exclusive news stories and interviews
- Served as digital editor before moving into the food editor role managing two websites, an EDM and social channels
- Traffic increased 26.88% year on year in my time, with sessions up 29.26% and pageviews up 11.88%
- Introduced video to our online channels on a limited budget

Metro taught me the fundamentals of good journalism.

I joined under Simon Wilson, Metro's editor from 2010 to 2015 and a widely respected figure in NZ media. He had a simple rule: if a piece didn't entertain or delight, it went back until it did. The same rigour made him a formidable restaurant critic, which meant big boots to fill when I became food editor after a year running Metro’s online two websites, newsletter and social channels (where I introduced video to the site, among other firsts).

The Top 50 features (bars, cafes, restaurants, cheap eats) became the project I cared about most. This was before Google reviews were a thing, so Metro's judgment carried a lot of weight in Auckland's hospitality scene. I took that responsibility seriously, making sure we considered decisions super carefully after judging in-person. Leading a panel of experts, many with far more experience than me, was inspiring, intimidating, and often stressful in equal measure. It taught me how to cultivate consensus by always returning to shared criteria and principles.

Some of the Cheap Eats judging panel 2015, from top left to right: Simon Wilson, Helen Cheng, Simon Farrell-Green, Anna King Shahab, Damaris Coulter, India Hendrikse, Alice Harbourne (me), William Chen, Connie Clarkson.

Cheap Eats is one of Metro's best-loved annual features – a guide to the best-value dining in the city. In 2015 I was a judge, before taking on the feature as food editor in 2016.
Food has always been a way into people's stories for me. This year's issue put that into practice, focusing on the stories of Auckland's best-loved immigrant-owned restaurants.

Possibly my proudest piece of work.

This 50-page guide to Auckland’s best restaurants 2017 was the culmination of months of work as Head Judge for the magazine’s annual award. I pored over every word of the booklet, producing some of my best food writing and carefully subediting contributions.

Read the Guide

A few pages from the 2017 Top 50 Restaurants awards, judged by a panel I convened and chaired. See link above for the highlights, laid out for easier reading.