Sam Sifton (born June 5, 1966) is an American journalist and food editor at ''The New York Times.'' He was previously the paper's national editor. Sifton has also worked as deputy dining editor (2001); dining editor (2001–04); deputy culture editor (2004–2005), and culture editor (2005–2009).

Early life

Sifton was born on June 5, 1966 to the Hon. Charles Proctor Sifton, a senior district judge of the

United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York The United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (in case citations, E.D.N.Y.) is the federal district court whose territorial jurisdiction spans five counties in New York State: the four Long Island counties of Nassau, S ...

, and Elisabeth Sifton, a senior vice president at

Farrar, Straus & Giroux Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG) is an American book publishing company, founded in 1946 by Roger Williams Straus Jr. and John C. Farrar. FSG is known for publishing literary books, and its authors have won numerous awards, including Pulitzer ...

and author of ''The Serenity Prayer'' (2003). His maternal grandfather was the theologian

Reinhold Niebuhr Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr (June 21, 1892 – June 1, 1971) was an American Reformed theologian, ethicist, commentator on politics and public affairs, and professor at Union Theological Seminary for more than 30 years. Niebuhr was one of Ameri ...

and his maternal grandmother was

Ursula Niebuhr Ursula Mary Niebuhr (August 3, 1907 – January 10, 1997) was an English American academic and theologian. She was the founder and longtime head of the Department of Religion at Barnard College in New York City, USA. She was born in Southampton, E ...

, the author of ''Remembering Reinhold Niebuhr'' (2001) and founder of the

Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...

Religion Department. Sifton graduated magna cum laude from

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...

with an A.B. degree in history and literature in 1988.

Career

Sifton began his journalism career as assistant editor for ''

American Heritage American Heritage may refer to: * ''American Heritage'' (magazine) * ''The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language'' * American Heritage Rivers * American Heritage School (disambiguation) See also *National Register of Historic Place ...

'' magazine in 1988. From 1990 to 1994, he taught social studies in the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

public school system. Sifton held a number of positions at the weekly ''

New York Press ''New York Press'' was a free alternative weekly in New York City, which was published from 1988 to 2011. The ''Press'' strove to create a rivalry with the ''Village Voice''. ''Press'' editors claimed to have tried to hire away writer Nat Hento ...

'' during his tenure there from 1990 to 1998, including restaurant critic, contributing editor, senior editor, media critic, and managing editor. Sifton was a founding editor of ''

Talk Talk may refer to: Communication * Communication, the encoding and decoding of exchanged messages between people * Conversation, interactive communication between two or more people * Lecture, an oral presentation intended to inform or instruct ...

'' in 1998 before coming to the ''Times'' in 2001. In October 2009, Sifton succeeded

Frank Bruni Frank Anthony Bruni (born October 31, 1964) is an American journalist and long-time writer for ''The New York Times''. In June 2011, he was named an op-ed columnist for the newspaper. His columns appear twice weekly and he also writes a weekly ne ...

as restaurant critic for the ''Times''. Sifton's last review"Per Se - A Critic Selects a Last Meal"
/ref> as restaurant critic was published October 11, 2011. He was succeeded by

Pete Wells Pete Wells is the restaurant critic for ''The New York Times''. He has held the position since November 2011, succeeding Sam Sifton. Wells was adopted as an infant and grew up in Rhode Island. He lives in Brooklyn and is married to the novelis ...

Personal life

Sifton is married to Tina Fallon, an independent theatre producer, and resides in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

Works

*Sifton, Sam, Malosh, D., & New York Times Company. (2021). ''The New York Times Cooking No Recipe Recipes''. New York: Ten Speed Press. ISBN 1529109833.

OCLC OCLC, Inc., doing business as OCLC, See also: is an American nonprofit cooperative organization "that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large". It was ...

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References

External links

Articles by Sam Sifton
on the New York Times website {{DEFAULTSORT:Sifton, Sam 1966 births Living people Harvard College alumni New York Press people Talk (magazine) people American male journalists The New York Times editors Place of birth missing (living people) American restaurant critics Critics employed by The New York Times