Sarah Blaskovich (right) and Tony Abruscato (left), chief marketing officer of the Texas Restaurant Association, at the award ceremony of the Texas Restaurant Awards.
If you saw Sarah Blaskovich carrying a skillet at the 89th annual Texas Restaurant Show on Sunday in San Antonio, she wasn’t on her way to a cooking session.
The senior food reporter at The Dallas Morning News was awarded the Excellence in Journalism Award from the Texas Restaurant Association, with the skillet being the trophy.
The restaurant show, held Sunday and Monday, is the second-largest in the country, with over 8,000 attendees and over 600 exhibitor booths this year.
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Blaskovich is the first Dallas reporter to receive the award, which was introduced in 2023 as part of a new set of Texas Restaurant Awards under the Texas Restaurant Show.
“Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was just incredibly evident how important it was that we had journalists who were covering our industry and covering our industry in a way that was accurate and meaningful,” said Kelsey Erickson Streufert, chief public affairs officer at the Texas Restaurant Association.
Previous recipients of the journalism excellence award include Pat Sharpe of Texas Monthly, Peter Romeo of Restaurant Business and Alicia Kelso of Nation’s Restaurant News.
“I am a journalist because I care deeply about my community, and I write about hundreds of restaurants in Texas every year from the big trendy places to the mom-and-pop shops,” Blaskovich said. “To have a group like the Texas Restaurant Association recognize the time and the heart I put into my stories, it means the world to me.”
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Blaskovich won the award for her powerful storytelling, Streufert said.
“She really wants to understand people, their lives, what motivates them, the challenges that they have,” Streufert said. “She puts that human face and story front and center, and that’s incredibly powerful and meaningful to the people who work in our industry.”
Blaskovich, 41, started at The News 14 years ago as a digital entertainment editor. And before she went to journalism school at the University of Missouri, she was in The News’ high school journalism program.
As a child, the Plano native would look at The News’ comics section before she could read. “I really grew up with this paper,” she said.
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Blaskovich was previously a managing editor at Pegasus News, an online publication bought by The News in 2012. “I like to say I came in through the side door,” she said.
The side door led to what she called “the best career move I’ve made.” In 2019, Blaskovich became a full-time food reporter.
“The restaurant industry is like no other industry, truly,” she said. “People in food are so interesting, and so genuine. And a lot of them have a servant’s heart; they have this hospitality bug inside them.”
At first, there was impostor syndrome, knowing she hadn’t attended culinary school, but gradually Blaskovich learned to let that be her edge and a drive behind her curiosity.
“Everybody eats, including me,” she said. “It is OK to be an outsider in the restaurant industry and still find ways to smartly investigate the restaurant industry.”
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After over seven years, she’s still loving the craft — and being awarded for her work.
Read food stories and guides from Sarah Blaskovich
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