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A picture of a microwave on a yellow background, with a spoof labelling of Meekro Wahve, (milk warmer,) in tribute to Nigella Lawson

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The Best and Worst Food Tweets of 2020

Nigella Lawson’s microwave, pork pies on pint glasses, and the tweets that shattered food media

by Adam Coghlan
Zara Bennett/Twitter
Part of How 2020 Changed London Dining

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:

James Hansen, Assistant Editor, Eater London:

Best:

Worst:

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:

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

Emma Hughes, freelance food writer and Eater London contributor: Favourite tweet is this

Most egregious tweet is:

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.

Feroz Gajia, restaurateur and Eater London contributor: Tammie Teclemariam taking down BA and Peter Meehan.

Ed Cumming, writer and restaurant critic:

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.

David J Paw, food writer and Eater London contributor:

How 2020 Changed London Dining