‘You must love food’: Gail Ciampa discusses covering the Rhode Island food scene

Gail Ciampa, who covers food and dining, has spent years reporting on the restaurant industry, becoming one of the state’s most prominent voices on culinary news. But that’s not how her career at the newspaper began. “The day I arrived I was a fashion editor, of all things, which was one of my least favorite jobs,” she said, explaining that things changed after a conversation with the food editor. “She said, ‘You’re Italian, you must love food, and you’re going to be one of my restaurant reviewers,'” Ciampa recalled. “I always filled in for her, and when she retired, I applied for the job. It’s been the job of a lifetime.” Ciampa also discussed her recent reporting on the retirement of a public official who played an outsized role in Rhode Island agriculture. She reflected on the challenges restaurateurs have faced since the COVID-19 pandemic and explained how she decides which stories to pursue. This week, Ciampa wrote about the surprising feedback she received from a reader in another state after publishing a story on presidential wines. (Spoiler: George Washington’s favorite was Madeira.) “She saw the story and was thrilled with the idea of serving Madeira,” Ciampa said. “She called me the ‘instigator of her party,’ and she said she had to tell me about it.” Later in the show, Kim and Eli discussed the “stories we wish we wrote,” including: Kim’s pick One tiki bar, plenty of turbulence by Jim McGaw, EastBayRI Washington Bridge closure lengthened East Bay ambulance trips, study finds by Alexander Castro, Rhode Island Current Eli’s pick A closer look at Foulkes’ record on opioids by Philip Eil, Rhode Island Current “We can’t keep doing this”: Mayor warns Attleboro fireworks may be a thing of the past by Rhianwen Watkins, The Attleboro Sun Chronicle “Behind the Story” is hosted by Eli Sherman and Kim Kalunian of 12 News, along with Dan McGowan of The Boston Globe.