James Beard Award winner
Alan Sytsma
- Discipline
- James Beard Award winner
Portrait of Alan Sytsma
i. Biography
The Climb
Training at French Culinary Institute gave Alan Sytsma a working kitchen vocabulary before he moved that knowledge into editorial practice. The result is a perspective that reads food as technique, context, and reporting subject at once. His work has been shaped by disciplined editorial judgment and a precise feel for food culture, the combination that matters when the pace is fast and the details still have to hold. In 2025, Alan Sytsma is food editor at New York Magazine, a post that puts him inside the publication’s food coverage. By 2026, he is editor at Grub Street, extending a career through two named magazine roles. Those appointments mark a clear editorial path: concise, accumulated, and anchored in rooms that shape the conversation.
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Today
He holds these editorial posts.
Career - food editor — New York Magazine - editor — Grub Street Education: French Culinary Institute
Signature
Crispito is one of Alan Sytsma’s signature dishes. The name suggests the kind of compact, readable food that lands through texture and character rather than length of description. That tracks with the editorial side of his work: an eye for what is specific, what is memorable, and what can carry a page without excess.
FAQ What is Alan Sytsma's current role? As of 2026, Alan Sytsma is food editor. Where did Alan Sytsma train or study? Alan Sytsma trained at French Culinary Institute.
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