Rosie Saferstein is a food writer for njmonthly.com, the website for New Jersey Monthly magazine. Her column "Table Hopping With Rosie" which is updated from Monday through Friday, features New Jersey restaurant news, food event listings, information about New Jersey chefs, a list of New Jersey restaurants that have recently opened or closed, and a potpourri of food and restaurant updates.
Rosie is often asked to participate in food discussion panels and judge food contests; her favorite was for chocolate desserts. She has been a judge the past four years for the Ultimate Chef of Bergen County competition held at Chef Central, Paramus, and also a judge on “Throw Down With Bobby Flay” on the Food Network. A few other contests that employed her palate have been for the New Jersey Monthly 2011 Great Burger Showdown contest; Taste of Essex; Country Fair in Wyckoff; “Thanksgiving Holiday Team Hot Food Competition” for the American Culinary Federation North Jersey Chapter held at the Culinary Arts Institute, Jersey City; and most recently the National All-Star Manischewitz All-Star Cook-Off finals for selection of the $25,000 Grand Prize winner held in New York City. She has also been a keynote speaker for organizations such as Hadassah, Children’s Specialized Hospital in Mountainside, Soroptimist International, and The National Council of Jewish Women.
Rosie created Food Bytes®, one of the first ever Internet food discussion forums in 1990 and served as editor of Food Bytes New Jersey Restaurant News. To gain an insider’s view of the restaurant business, she worked as a busperson, waitress, cook, and hostess. She also assists in teaching cooking classes at places such as Kings Cooking Studio and has been a radio guest on Pat Tanner’s "Dining Today" on WHWH-AM/1350; Arthur Schwartz’s “Food Talk” on WOR-AM/710; “The Restaurant Guys” radio show; Patriot Media cable TV; WCTC-AM/1450; Ebru TV; West Orange Week, Channel TV 36 with Mayor John McKeon, and My Fox NY TV channel 5 and My 9 TV channel 9.
Rosie was moderator of the New Jersey section on eGullet, an international food forum on the Internet, from 2001 to 2006. She was awarded the 2004 Purveyor of the Year award by the New Jersey Purveyor’s Association. While serving as the food forum moderator and as North Jersey restaurant critic at New Jersey Online from 1997 to 2000, Rosie reviewed more than 100 New Jersey restaurants and was cited in Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page’s book “Dining Out” as an Internet restaurant resource. New York Times restaurant critic David Corcoran featured her in two New York Times articles (October 22 and November 12, 2000), and food writer Suzanne Lowery mentioned her in a Star-Ledger article about e-food (July 28, 2004). Food journalist Peter Genovese, in his book Food Lovers’ Guide to New Jersey, says, “For the latest on the New Jersey restaurant scene, the best source is Rosie Saferstein….”
Rosie is a member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, James Beard Foundation, and Association of Food Journalists.