About Dale

[Sample copy — Dale should tell this in his own voice.] Dale Rice spent 35 years in newspaper journalism at papers in Syracuse, Dallas, and Austin — as an education writer, city hall reporter, state capital bureau chief, business editor, and lifestyle editor. But the job people always ask about is the one where he got paid to eat: years as the restaurant critic and wine writer for the Austin American-Statesman.

In 2008 he traded the newsroom for the classroom, joining Texas A&M University, where he became Director of Journalism Studies and taught a generation of reporters that the story matters more than the byline — while keeping a hand in as a food columnist along the way.

These days he lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where the notebook has given way to the skillet. This site is where the two careers meet: a reporter's curiosity, a critic's palate, and a home cook's kitchen at 7,000 feet.

• Syracuse, New York A Syracuse University graduate, Dale started his newspaper career in his college town — the first of three cities' worth of newsrooms.
• The Dallas Times Herald Newsroom years in Dallas, in the era when Texas newspapering was a contact sport. [Add favorite stories and clippings from this era.]
• The Austin American-Statesman Editor roles and, most memorably, restaurant critic and wine writer — years of reviews, food columns, and dining coverage in one of America's great food towns. [Excerpts from past columns can go here.]
• Texas A&M University From 2008, professor and Director of Journalism Studies — teaching reporting, political journalism, and arts & entertainment writing — plus a food column for the Bryan-College Station Eagle.
• Santa Fe, New Mexico Now cooking, eating, and writing in the City Different — and sharing it all here.

A place for favorite pieces from Dale's years of food writing — scanned clippings, republished columns, and the stories behind memorable reviews. [We'll add selected past articles here, with any needed permissions from the papers.]