Meet the Mappers

Eater's flagship dining guides are maps of essential restaurants, which run quarterly in each of our 23 city sites. They aim to provide a comprehensive, accessible, and opinionated portrait of their cities. Massive restaurant scenes get an essential 38; cities with smaller dining scenes get an 18.

Our guides aim to capture that same ethos: A focus not on the buzziest or priciest dining experiences, but the most vital (they're organized here not by arbitrary ranking, but by neighborhood). Here are the local experts behind them.

Amsterdam
Elizabeth Auerbach is a food writer and restaurant reviewer focusing on Michelin-starred restaurants in Europe and the U.S., and on the London and Amsterdam dining scene. She's well-known for being always up-to-date with the latest developments in the world of gastronomy and chefs, but also for her expertise on Michelin guides. Follow Elizabeth on Twitter and Instagram or check her website ElizabethOnFood.com.

Bangkok
Sirin Wongpanit runs a small media consulting firm and writes about food and travel on her blog ohhappybear.com. She loves animals, road trips, and seafood.

Barbados
A native New York apple and imported Georgia peach, Tamara Best is a writer and editor based in New York City. A proud Bajan, she spent her summers on the island and escapes every chance she gets especially during the winter.

Barcelona
Sam Zucker is originally from Boston, MA, but has lived in Barcelona since 2013. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America (Hyde Park, NY), he writes a monthly food column for Barcelona Metropolitan magazine, and is a regular contributor to Catavino.net and Culinarybackstreets.com. He leads historical­-gastronomic walking tours of Barcelona, and he recently co-­authored a 48 Hour BCN guidebook that will be published by National Geographic France in the fall of 2016. Find his full portfolio at zuckerandspicetravel.com and follow him on Instagram.

Beijing
Lillian Chou is a former food editor for Gourmet and Time Out Beijing and a jack of all food trades (cook, writer, food stylist, recipe developer, photographer, presenter, fixer, and restaurant critic) who left New York to return to Asia where she's become a lunch lady feeding lucky kids delicious meals made with organic local produce. She's a constant freelancer and has contributed to many cookbooks and publications including Saveur, Rodale's Organic Life, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Time, and Travel+Leisure Asia. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter.

Berlin
Per Meurling is a Swedish writer, tour guide, and food nerd living in Berlin who spends all his time searching for extraordinary restaurants and telling their stories on his blogs Berlin Food Stories and Finest Food Stories, and in publications like Fool Magazine, Saveur, and Gourmet. Follow his search on Instagram and Twitter.

Bogotá
Liliana López Sorzano is a food and travel writer based in Bogotá, Colombia. She is a former food editor at Cocina Semana and Avianca magazines. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

Buenos Aires
Allie Lazar is a freelance eater and writer based in Argentina. She covers the Buenos Aires food scene on Pick Up the Fork, and has appeared in the New York Times, Bon Appétit, the Guardian, and Saveur, among others. Her hobbies include reading menus, taking food photos, and chorizo sandwiches.

Calgary
Mallory Frayn is a food writer and PhD student originally from Calgary but currently living in Montreal. Her research and writing tie together her two passions, food and psychology, to help people develop healthier relationships with food. She freelances for various publications across Canada, including regular contributions to Eat North and Culinaire Magazine. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram, and check out her website.

Cancún
Catherine Gordon, originally from London, has lived in Cancún for the last seven years. A writer for magazines, blogs, and websites about travel, culture and fashion, Catherine specializes in discovering things off the beaten track.

Cape Town
Sarah Khan is a freelance journalist based in Cape Town. Her writing appears in the New York Times, Condé Nast Traveler, Travel+Leisure, and many other titles. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram and on her blog, The South AfriKhan.

Copenhagen
Gabe Ulla is a New York-based food writer (and grad student) currently working on a cookbook with the restaurant Estela. He has contributed to Lucky Peach, WSJ, Saveur, and Bon Appétit, among others, and for several years was an editor at Eater. From 2013 to 2015, he lived in Copenhagen, working with René Redzepi and the MAD organization.

Dublin
Catherine Cleary is a Dublin-based journalist who writes the weekly restaurant review for The Irish Times. She turned from writing about crime to writing about food and is the author of four books; her latest book, The Pavement is Our Pillow, is a memoir written with veteran Dublin homeless activist Alice Leahy due to be published soon. You can follow her on Twitter, and catch up on her podcast in collaboration with historian Juliana Adelman, History on a Plate if you'd like to bone up on Irish food history before your visit.

Florence
Coral Sisk is a Florence-based food and drink writer and the creator of Curious Appetite Travel, a bespoke provider of culinary wine tours. She blogs at the Curious Appetite. She is an Italian sommelier (in training) with a certification in food and wine pairing, and her writing can be found at Eater, Vogue, Vice Munchies, and more.

Honolulu
Kathy YL Chan is based in New York City and Honolulu. She is a food and travel writer and a nationally recognized tea expert. Find her on Instagram and Twitter.

Hong Kong
Janice Lueng Hayes is a Hong Kong-based food writer, occasional blogger, and organizer of the city's largest urban farmers' market. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Monocle, South China Morning Post, and more, but mostly she's just here for the food. She can be found on Instagram and Twitter.

Istanbul
Tuba Satana is an Istanbul-based food writer, columnist, lecturer, photographer, and culinary guide. She is known as a supporter of local cuisine, ingredients, and tradesmen and writes about them on Istanbul Food and for local and international media. Follow her on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

Lima
Nicholas Gill lives in Lima, Peru, and Brooklyn, New York. He has been exploring Peruvian food and Latin American cuisine in general for the past decade while writing for publications like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Fool, Roads & Kingdoms, and dozens of other publications. He recently launched a website covering food in the Americas called New Worlder and wrote the book Central with Peruvian chef Virgilio Martinez, which will be published by Phaidon in October.

Lisbon
Miguel Pires is a Portuguese journalist and restaurant reviewer for publications in Portugal, Brazil, and Italy, and is the co-author of Mesa Marcada. He's also an amateur cook and Instagram activist (follow him), and recently published the guide Eat in Lisbon.

London
Adam Coghlan is a food and restaurant writer, based in London. His writing has appeared in the London Evening Standard, the Independent on Sunday, the Gourmand, Mr Porter, and CoolHunting, among others. He is also the head of content for the annual London Restaurant Festival. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.

Madrid
Paula Móvil is a food writer based in Madrid, Spain. She is the deputy editor of Tapas Magazine, and her writing has appeared in Vanity Fair, El País, and Porter & Sail. She is also a cofounder of the Vermutería Pop-Up. Follow her on Instagram.

Melbourne
Sharlee Gibb manages a food events business in Melbourne called curateEAT and recently founded a social community for women in the food industry called Fully Booked. She loves quotes, cookbooks, and Instagram.

Montevideo
Nell McShane Wulfhart is a travel journalist based in Montevideo and reporting from around the world. She's a frequent contributor to the New York Times, Travel+Leisure, Conde Nast Traveler, and many other publications. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

Mumbai
Michael Snyder wrote, until recently, on food, travel, and culture across the Subcontinent from his home in Mumbai. His work has appeared in T, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Saveur, the Art of Eating, and Lucky Peach, among others.

Muscat
Felicia Campbell holds a masters degree in food studies with an emphasis on the Middle East from New York University. An award-nominated writer, she was the travel editor at Saveur before going on assignment to Muscat, where her obsession with this unusual corner of Arabia was ignited, inspiring her to write the first cookbook and culinary history of Oman. She is now the executive editor for the magazine and longform division of Muscat Media Group.

Nairobi
Soni Adriance is the Events & Partnerships manager at EatOut Kenya & Yummy Nairobi. Soni's passion is her blog Soni Side Up which focuses on bar and restaurant reviews around Kenya. Follow her on Instagram.

Ottowa
Tim Forster is an ex-Melburnian, editor of Eater Montreal, and reporter at CJAD 800 in Montreal.

Paris/Cannes
Alexander Lobrano is the ultimate Paris restaurant expert and author of Hungry for Paris and Hungry for France. He blogs about restaurants on alexanderlobrano.com and writes often for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Saveur, and other publications.

Rio de Janeiro
Taylor Barnes is a freelance journalist based in Rio de Janeiro and a correspondent for Culinary Backstreets. Her work has appeared in magazines like Marie Claire, Delta Sky, the Holland Herald, and Fodor's Travel.

Rome
Katie Parla is a Rome-based food and beverage educator, journalist, and culinary guide. She has written and edited more than 20 books and her food criticism and travel writing have appeared in the New York Times, Food & Wine, Saveur, Corriere della Sera, and others.

Santiago
Hillary Eaton is a food and travel writer based in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in MUNCHIES, Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, and Refinery29 to name a few. Currently, she is working on Amboy, a cookbook with chef Alvin Cailan of Eggslut. Follow her adventures on Instagram and online.

São Paulo
Rafael Tonon is a Brazilian journalist and food writer based in São Paulo. His work appears in many magazines (GQ, Vogue, and others) and papers, such as Paladar and the food section in O Estado de S. Paulo, the major newspaper in Brazil. He maintains the food blog What the Fork and is working on a book about the food and restaurant traditions of São Paulo.

San Juan
Mikol Hoffman is the director of operations for Flavors of San Juan, a Caribbean food tour operator that acquaints travelers with the island's best-loved cuisine. A native San Juanera, she has visited over 45 different countries. When she's not busy traveling, taste-testing, or script-writing for work, she practices and teaches yoga.

Seoul
Matty Yangwoo Kim is an Eater contributor and photographer based in New York City. Food, photography, and travel are his three biggest passions. Follow his gastronomic journey through the world on Instagram.

Singapore
Natasha Hong is a Singaporean food and drinks writer, and a sour beer and lambic geek. She is the restaurant critic and section editor at Time Out Singapore, and will be transitioning to focus on drinks industry writing as the managing editor for DRiNK Magazine's Southeast Asian edition. Follow her on Instagram and on her blog natashahong.com.

Stockholm
Per Styregård is a columnist, writer, speaker, and curator for the business daily Dagens Industri; appears regularly on Swedish public television; runs the gastronomic debate forum Skafferiet; and blogs occasionally on styregard.com.

Taipei
Clarissa Wei is an American freelance journalist currently backpacking around Asia. She specializes in Chinese food and culture. Her work has appeared on VICE, CNN, Outside Magazine, the Village Voice, Los Angeles Times, and LA Weekly.

Tel Aviv
Keren Brown is the author of the Food Lovers' Guide to Seattle and has been featured in the Seattle Times, Sunset magazine, Chicago Tribune, and as Martha Stewart's "Doer of the Week."  She lives and eats the Tel Aviv food scene. Follow her on Instagram, Twitter, and on her blog.

Tokyo
Robbie Swinnerton is a UK-born journalist and food writer who has lived in Japan for over three decades. His restaurant review column, Tokyo Food File, has run in the Japan Times since 1978. He also contributes to publications around the world and blogs at tokyofoodfile.com. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.

Toronto
Andrea Chiu is a Toronto-based freelance journalist whose work has appeared in publications including the Globe and Mail and House and Home. Follow her food and travel adventures on Instagram and Twitter.

Corey Mintz is a Toronto-based food writer and columnist for the Globe & Mail, focusing on the intersection of food with politics, farming, labor, ethics, and culture. Before this spoiled lifestyle, he was a restaurant critic. Before that spoiled life, he spent six years working for a living as a cook. He is also the author of How to Host a Dinner Party (House of Anansi, 2013). He is a fully licensed driver.

Tulum
Kat Odell is a contributing editor for Eater.com and has appeared in food shows including The Chew, Consumed, and Bravo's Eat, Drink, Love. She lives in New York City. Find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Vancouver
Nikki Bayley is an award-winning journalist based in Vancouver. She writes about food, cocktails, spirits, and wine for newspapers, magazines, and websites in the UK, Canada, and Australia. She has a monthly food and drink column for B.C. Living and is a regular contributor to the Globe & Mail, Daily Telegraph, Guardian, and the Difford's Guide. Follow her on Twitter.

Credits:

Editors: Hillary Dixler, Erin DeJesus, Meghan McCarron
Additional editing by: Matt Buchanan, Sonia Chopra, Bill Addison, Daniela Galarza, Helen Rosner
Map builders/fact checkers: Amy McKeever, Brenna Houck, Adam Callaghan, Erin Perkins, Gwendolyn Knapp, Vince Dixon
Designer: Tyson Whiting
Illustrator: Brittany Holloway Brown
Developer: Aidan Feay
Special thanks: Mary Hough, Shaun McIlroy, Tammie Teclemariam