Profile for JO 309

Stefanie Tudor and her boyfriend were on their first date when he dipped his bread in the mussel broth and ordered a steak medium rare.

“Good,” she thought to herself. She knew they’d break bread together again.


Medium rare is the way Tudor likes her favorite dish, too, and her boyfriend’s eating habits are important to the aspiring food critic and blogger. Her habit of dining out was nurtured at a young age by her parents and has grown from a family tradition to Tudor’s way of life, especially as a student at Boston University.

“I didn’t like [the local restaurants] at first,” said Tudor. “As a freshman, you’re very limited to campus. But as I came to know Boston more, I really recognized it as one of the biggest and best food scenes in the country. The talent here is amazing.”

At Sunset Cantina, a favorite student hangout, Tudor orders the nachos, without black olives. She carefully plucks chips from around a mound of cheese, but soon gives up, leveling off the top layer to reveal a pool of beef chili underneath.
“I’m sorry; this is gross,” she says through a mouthful.

Tudor has wanted to be a journalist from the time she was in high school, but she only recently combined her two loves when a friend suggested she start a food blog. A year and a half later, she was not only sampling eateries in Boston but also learning to cook, hosting at Eastern Standard in Kenmore Square and interning at Food Network Magazine.

“It just kind of all of a sudden made sense—I should write about what I love,” said Tudor.

As a magazine journalism major in the College of Communication, Tudor is also trying her hand at cooking in the School of Hospitality Administration. She’s considering applying to the Metropolitan College master program for gastronomy, the art of food. Starting to cook has helped her understand food beyond her own taste, she said.

Tudor’s family doesn’t mind that she spends money on nice dinners out in Boston, but her classmates are less inclined to part with hard-to-come-by cash, she said. She misses her childhood best friend who also enjoys fine fare, but Tudor and her boyfriend still share a bond over food.

“I’m actually a much better cook than she is,” Will Dempsey said. “But she’s definitely made a very strong effort to make meals for me. She’s good at following the recipe, but she doesn’t trust her instinct to mix and match flavors.”

Because Tudor has grown up eating at high-end restaurants, she expects a certain level of service some college students might not notice. However, she said she would only send food back if it was wrong, like the breaded lobster she once received when she only asked for it shelled.

“Obviously, food is number one, but service is very important to me. I don’t let myself be pushed aside,” Tudor said. “The bottom line is: they’re there to serve you.”

Dining with Tudor took some time for Dempsey to grow used to because she has “no reservations” about her expectations from a restaurant. Whereas some patrons might not complain to their servers about mistakes, Tudor is not afraid to speak up, he said.

“I definitely had an increase in my appreciation for going out to eat,” Dempsey said. “And it’s nice because she’s also more knowledgeable about food; if you’re looking at a menu and don’t know what something is, she does.”

Tudor said she always encourages her friends to try new dishes, but her mother testifies that she was actually a picky eater as a child.

“Basically, she ate chicken fingers and french fries,” Karen Tudor said. “Somehow, she developed this other palate and started eating exotic things.”

The Tudors started taking their children out to eat as a family ritual. The family’s daily plans always revolve around a meal, even when they visited Tudor while she was studying in Spain, her mother said. As her son and daughter grow older, Tudor said she appreciates family meas more because she knows they will happen less often.

Tudor’s love for food and dining out stems from those family-bonding experiences. Eating out is a great communal experience because the activity paces the conversation well, she said.

“It’s interesting because I love food,” Tudor said. “But I only really, really love it when I’m eating it with somebody else.”