It is the tradition at Eater to end the year with a survey of friends, contributors, rovers of the industry, and professional eaters. Even a year like this one. For 2020, the group were asked 13 questions, covering the best meals and the worst tweets alongside community responses, and coronavirus pivots. Their answers will appear throughout this week, with responses related in no particular order; cut and pasted below.
The best meals of 2020 and best delivery food of 2020 have been recorded, and now it’s time to look to where much of the year played out: online. Without further ado, here are the best, and worst, food tweets of 2020.
Adam Coghlan, Editor, Eater London:
The most egregious tweet of 2020:
Just bumped into @dvh_ellis at Bond Street, consistently best dressed man in London food media
— calum franklin (@chefcalum) December 10, 2020
James Hansen, Assistant Editor, Eater London:
Best:
Who does Adam Rapoport Rapoport to?
— UNIONIZE CONDE, FAST (@tammieetc) June 8, 2020
Me and the dude at my local greengrocers just had a really passive aggressive conversation about blood oranges, if you want deets lmk
— Eli Goldstone (@eligoldstone) January 6, 2020
I've noticed being careful and nuanced on this website means absolutely fucking nothing and ppl will just assume you're stupid or read whatever they want into what you say and hyperbolic awful bullshit usually wins so fuck it, mask off. chicken nuggets are a kind of dumpling.
— dr. the arcane gamer (@mechapoetic) January 4, 2020
love to see fortnums striving for relevance, fairness and inclusivity at this most trying of times x pic.twitter.com/lBmrnvqysl
— Ruby Tandoh (@rubytandoh) April 9, 2020
Worst:
Cheese: Grated.
— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) November 26, 2020
Libs: Owned. pic.twitter.com/2DPnA06nrR
I've been thinking a lot that if Tony Bourdain and Jonathan Gold were alive, we would be hearing so much more about restaurants, immigrant entrepreneurs and small businesses reeling right now.
— S. Mitra Kalita (@mitrakalita) April 30, 2020
Anna Sulan Masing, food writer and Eater London contributor: We have lived 2020 online, Twitter is my bubble of all my best friends and enemies. But, ending on high:
The @Nigella_Lawson and @IKEAUK collab drops tonight. pic.twitter.com/V87MYh9EiO
— Zara Bennett (@ZaraLouB) December 9, 2020
Jonathan Nunn, food writer and Eater London contributor: The time when the food editor of the Evening Standard claimed I had libelled him on Twitter, a baseless claim which led to his own article being taken down and a mention in Private Eye.
Chris Cotonou, writer and Eater London contributor: As a Spurs fan, I’m thoroughly enjoying Mangal 2’s @mangal2 relentless banter against our rivals Arsenal. Assoc. Ed’s note: this relentless banter is not enjoyable at all.
Sejal Sukhadwala, food writer and Eater London contributor: In my 18 years in the industry, I’ve never seen anything like Tammie Teclemariam’s house-of-cards tweets that eventually brought down Adam Rapoport/Bon Appetit and Peter Meehan, triggering a momentum for change. By far the food Twitter moments of the year. Also, Kamala Harris tweeting an entire Thanksgiving recipe, which was so bizarre and schmaltzy — can you imagine a British politician doing that without being laughed off Twitter? The most egregious tweet of 2020 for me was this one by Fay Maschler
A review in the Evening Standard in 2015 from a white English woman born in India in 1945 at the tail end of the Raj propelled @Asma_KhanLDN from a pop-up to a permanent restaurant - as described in Chef’s Table - but that’s not a story these days.
— Fay Maschler (@Fay_Maschler) June 30, 2020
Emma Hughes, freelance food writer and Eater London contributor: Favourite tweet is this
The original jelly show stopper #GBBO pic.twitter.com/5KXRmJJeE9
— Louise Beresford (@Miss_Beresford) November 10, 2020
Most egregious tweet is:
— Gripping Food With Force (@Gripping_food) December 1, 2020
Shekha Vyas, food writer and Eater London contributor: Donalde’s contribution to a certain hot debate, which drew our attention to a great article in Taste, by Hannah Giogis about how central pasta, lasagna, in particular, is to Eritrea.
https://t.co/CP6ASBTlUJ A lovely piece on how central pasta and lasagna in particular is to food culture in Eritrea 'our other injera'.
— donaldé (@donalde) August 27, 2020
Feroz Gajia, restaurateur and Eater London contributor: Tammie Teclemariam taking down BA and Peter Meehan.
Ed Cumming, writer and restaurant critic:
Food twitter is just the best. People are just nice, sharing and helpful. I think am gonna bin politics twitter which is perpetual war and nastiness and changes no ones mind ever.
— suzanne moore (@suzanne_moore) April 21, 2020
Daisy Meager, food writer and Eater London contributor: Basically all the ‘is it cake?’ related videos and tweets that interrupted the rest of my doomscrolling. And probably something Jonathan Nunn tweeted.
Angela Hui, food writer and Eater London contributor: I know this is my own tweet but Tony’s on Cardiff’s Chippy Alley doing outdoor dining during the height of ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme when it has always done outdoor dining will never not be funny to me. Also, pissing off the entirety of Wales with the age-old ‘Chippy Lane’ or ‘Chippy Alley’ debate twice in one year with this tweet and in the hyper-regional chippy Vittles piece is a great accomplishment imo. For most egregious, I’m just gonna go with this cursed one, which I think sums up 2020.
So excited for tier 2 x pic.twitter.com/lquxzimYpg
— Megan Townsend (@mmtowns) November 27, 2020
David J Paw, food writer and Eater London contributor:
Alexa, show me perfection pic.twitter.com/ZSLKqVRpCo
— Angela Hui (@Angela_Hui) December 5, 2020