James Beard award-winning writer Ahmed Ali Akbar joined the staff of the Chicago Tribune as a food reporter on Feb. 19. He’ll be working with Food Editor Kayla Samoy.
Akbar was born and raised in Saginaw, Michigan, and moved from New York to Pilsen in 2022.
He began his journalism career at Buzzfeed and BuzzFeed News covering American Muslims, food and culture for four years. For the last five years, he split his time between freelance food writing and audio reporting; he wrote for Eater, Bon Appetit and America’s Test Kitchen, and hosted shows for Vox and Crooked Media.
His podcast “See Something Say Something” won a Wilbur Award and his 2022 Eater article on the underground WhatsApp mango trade won the James Beard Award in feature reporting.
Akbar graduated from the University of Michigan and holds a master’s degree from Harvard Divinity School. You can follow him on Twitter @radbrowndads.