Eater NY Wins Local Press Award

Eater NY has won the New York Press Club’s 2022 award for Food Writing for its reporting on the rise of the flour tortilla in New York City restaurants.

In “Flour Tortillas Finally Get Their Moment in New York City”, reporter Luke Fortney explored the unique presence of flour tortillas in the city — which, until recently, was rare. NYC’s Mexican population hails largely from the states of Puebla, Oaxaca, Guerrero, and Guanajuato, and the tortilla tradition back home puts a clear emphasis on corn — not flour. But a new generation of Mexican chefs is learning how to make flour tortillas themselves, both changing the narrative around a 500-year old tradition that’s often viewed as “inauthentic” by food purists and many Mexicans, and reintroducing pre-Hispanic culture into the lexicon of what’s commonly referred to today as Tex-Mex.

Eater NY has reported on the rise of other Mexican food trends and restaurants in the city, such as the ever-popular birria taco scene; the growing focus on corn tortillas made with fresh and heirloom masa; the popularity of Tex-Mex; and restaurants bringing less-frequently seen ingredients and methods — like the choricera found at Taqueria Ramirez in Greenpoint — to the city.

Robert Sietsema of Eater NY previously won two New York Press Club awards in the same category, one for his personal story “In a Wheelchair and Hungry” in 2020 and for “Devouring St. Mark’s After Dark: A Food Crawl Down the Crowded, Delicious Street” in 2019.