Bittman’s back

Prolific cookbook author, respected food columnist, and EYB Member favorite Mark Bittman made waves when he left The New York Times back in 2015. He bounced around a bit following his departure, with a brief stint at the vegan meal-kit company Purple Carrot and a major move to the West Coast. Even though he still thinks leaving the NYT was the right move, he’s been itching to return to the world of regular food writing. That itch has been scratched, as Grub Street announced today that Bittman would begin writing for both its website and New York Magazine. 

The author briefly discussed the reasons he left his longstanding gig at the paper, noting that while he loved writing The Minimalist food column, he didn’t feel the same way about the opinion column he penned. He was circumspect about other conditions that led to his departure, saying only that he left for many reasons, “some of which I’ve written and talked about, and some of which are going to have to wait a bit longer.”

Bittman recently moved back to the East Coast, landing at Glynwood, which he hails as “a wonderful, inspiring, and smart sustainable food-and-farming nonprofit near Cold Spring.” While he may have given up weekly food writing when he left New York, Bittman didn’t give up cookbook writing. His How to Bake Everything came out last fall, and he’s working on a revision of How to Cook Everything Vegetarian that’s due this fall.

He’s already written his first column for Grub Street, and is ecstatic about his new role. Bittman has never been shy about his beliefs and will definitely sprinkle politics into his posts about food. “I want to write about cooking again, daily cooking, the kind of thing I think I do best, and I want a place to rant about food, justice, and the future of humans,” he says.