Welcome to the Brenner Report
I’m Leslie Brenner, a longtime food journalist, critic and writer turned food-and-beverage consultant. I’ve lived and worked in Los Angeles, New York and now Dallas, where I’ve been since 2009.
Winner of two James Beard Journalism Awards, I’m author of six books (five about food and/or wine, and one novel) and a leader in Dallas’ food and beverage community. I founded my consultancy, Leslie Brenner Concepts, in 2019, my Webby Award-winning cooking website — Cooks Without Borders — in 2015 and the Cooks Without Borders newsletter in 2023.
What is the Brenner Report?
My newsletter about food and the food world. Out the gate, I’ll tell you what I’m cooking and why, and what I’m seeing and tasting out in the world. I’ll be covering trends, musing on current events and passing along interesting things being published, and trying to offer context and analysis along the way.
This is very much a work in progress, begun because former readers have told me they miss my writing. Some of them with a passion for cooking have been finding my stories and recipes at Cooks Without Borders; the Brenner Report expands on that and covers a much broader range of topics. It will certainly evolve, perhaps radically. It very much depends on what interests you most, so please let me know what you like or don’t like about what you’re reading, or what you’d like to see more of or less of. You can do that in comments, or email me at leslie@lesliebrennerconcepts.com.
More about my background
In 2017 I left a decades-long career in journalism to join a Dallas startup called Rebees, where I directed food & beverage programming, marketing and media. During the two years I worked there, I helped open a fancy dining saloon called Billy Can Can; collaborated on the health-forward menu for Hatchways Cafe; helped mastermind an international food emporium which will soon open in Orange County, California; and collaborated on the food & beverage curation of a Dallas entertainment district during its redevelopment.
As an independent consultant, I have helped create the food and beverage vision for a new retail concept from Macy’s, hosted live food events in Dallas and helped a number of independent restaurateurs rework and improve their menus and/or concepts.
During the Covid-19 crisis, I have helped launch ShiftDallas (an organization of service-industry volunteers working together to provide access to education, mentorship and support for their peers), and organized a Dallas auction for Ask Chefs Anything (benefiting the undocumented workers who are the backbone of the restaurant industry). I’ve also helped two restaurant client reinvent their business models in response to the pandemic.
The Great Confinement for me has also meant a whole lot of cooking — and writing about it — usually for Cooks Without Borders, and occasionally for my former employer, The Dallas Morning News.
Quick rundown on my journalism and writing career: Dallas Morning News is where I served as restaurant critic and dining editor from 2009 to 2017. Prior to that, I was acting editor of the Los Angeles Times Magazine (2008), food editor at The Los Angeles Times (from 2004 to 2007) and contributing editor at Travel + Leisure (2001 to 2003). I received an MFA in Fiction Writing from Columbia University, following a BA in English from Stanford. As a freelance journalist I wrote for Harper’s, The New York Times, New York magazine and many other publications.
Why should I subscribe?
Subscribe to get full, free access to the Brenner Report newsletter and website. Never miss an update. Also, I’ll include links to things I’ve published at Cooks Without Borders or elsewhere.
If you want to UNSUBSCRIBE, I promise it’s really easy.
