The James Beard Award Selection Committee
This year, Visit Buffalo assembled a committee of seven local food writers, editors and industry leaders to identify Buffalo and Erie County’s strongest candidates for James Beard Awards nominations, one of the highest honors in the restaurant industry. Meet the committee below.
Christa Glennie is chair of Visit Buffalo’s James Beard Committee. A champion of the region’s independent restaurant scene, she’s produced events to increase the public’s appreciation of it and support a sense of community among the industry itself, including dozens of farm and farmers market tours for chefs and home cooks; Industry Night; Nickel City Chef (a 10-season cooking competition, book and James Beard House dinner); provides advice and support to dozens of restaurateurs. Glennie works as Buffalo Spree’s food editor; oversees operations for the redevelopment of the DL&W Terminal; is communications chair for the American Culinary Federation Education Foundation Accrediting Commission and a board member of the Homeless Alliance of WNY. For fun, she runs MiX, Cake Club and Le Social Club.
Jeff Biesinger has written for Buffalo Spree for the past 13 years, including over 30 extensive fine-dining reviews of Western New York restaurants. He and his wife Lisa are avid home cooks, cookbook collectors and competitors in over 20 sanctioned barbecue contests, including the American Royal World Series of Barbecue in Kansas City.
Donnie Burtless is the founder of Buffalo Eats (@buffaloeats), a popular social media account covering the local culinary scene for over 15 years. Spotlighting locally-owned restaurants, industry members and openings, Buffalo Eats has earned over 100,000 followers across its social media platforms. Beyond its media effort, Burtless and his team of eight dedicated contributors have raised more than $200,000 for Roswell Park through Ride for Roswell. Outside of Buffalo Eats, Burtless works in corporate banking.
Luke Copping is a commercial and advertising photographer and winner of the James Beard Foundation Photography Prize at the World Food Photography Awards. Since founding his Buffalo studio, he has photographed chefs, restaurateurs, farmers and producers for advertising agencies, brands and editorial clients across the United States and Canada. That range has given him a long view of how the region’s dining scene has developed and who has driven it. Outside the studio, he is a devoted home cook with a standing weakness for tinned sardines, Japanese curry and a good cocktail.
Andrew Galarneau has covered local foodways since 2013, for a decade as food editor and restaurant critic for The Buffalo News. He came to food writing from investigative reporting, and loves tracking down fantastic cooks serving the public. He is also an accomplished cook, available for hire. Since 2000, he has taught Introduction to Journalism in the University at Buffalo English Department. In 2023, he took his food report to his own site, FourBites.net, putting theories hatched in his classroom to the test.
Brett Llenos Smith is a professional freelance food writer with more than 14 years of experience covering new restaurants. In addition to writing about Western New York for local media, he has extensive experience covering new restaurants in New Orleans and Manhattan for What Now Media Group. Brett is an avid home cook and works weekly prep shifts at a neighborhood restaurant. As someone with a multi-ethnic background, he has a passion for highlighting less-advantaged folks in his writing.
Kyla Wazana Tompkins is a writer and scholar who has written two award-winning books on the history of food in the United States. Raised by a restaurant owner, she worked as a journalist and restaurant critic. won a James Beard Award for Personal Essay without Recipes in 2023. While working on her third book, she will be a fellow at the National Humanities Center in North Carolina. She currently teaches at SUNY Buffalo.
