David Joseph Leite (born 18 July 1960) is a

Portuguese American Portuguese Americans (), also known as Luso-Americans (''luso-americanos''), are citizens and residents of the United States who are connected to the country of Portugal by birth, ancestry, or citizenship. Americans and others who are not nativ ...

food writer, cookbook author, memoirist, and founder of the two-time James Beard Award-winning website Leite's Culinaria.

Early life

Leite was born in Fall River,

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

, and raised in

Swansea Swansea ( ; ) is a coastal City status in the United Kingdom, city and the List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, second-largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of ...

, where he graduated from Joseph Case High School in 1978.

Career

He has written for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', ''

Martha Stewart Living ''Martha Stewart Living'' is a magazine A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), ...

'' Bon Appétit, Saveur, ''Food & Wine'', ''Gourmet'', ''Food Arts'', ''Men's Health'', ''The Los Angeles Times Magazine'', ''Chicago Sun Times'', ''The Washington Post'', and other publications in the United States and abroad. Leite won the 2008 James Beard Award for Best Newspaper Feature Without Recipes. He also won the 2006 and 2007 James Beard Award for Best Internet Website for Food. Leite is a four-time nominee for the Bert Greene Award for Food Journalism, which he won in 2006. He is also a recipient of several awards from the

Association of Food Journalists The Association of Food Journalists (AFJ) was a US-based professional organization that operated from the early 1970s through 2024. It was created to promote high standards for journalists reporting and writing on food, the food industry, restaura ...

. His work has been featured in Best Food Writing () 14 times since 2001. Leite was a contributor to The Morning News. He was also a recurring guest on the ''Today Show'', the Martha Stewart Radio program ''Living Today'' hosted by Mario Bosquez, and ''Connecticut Style''. He has been heard on ''Good Food'' with Evan Kleiman, Lucinda Scala Quinn's program, ''Mad Hungry Monday'' and various NPR programs. Leite has appeared on History Channel 2's ''United Stuff of America'' and Food Network's ''Beat Bobby Flay''. He reads his essays and columns, as well as acts as a correspondent, on public radio's food program ''The Splendid Table hosted by Lynne Rossetto Kasper''. In 2012 he served a guest host of ''Cooking Today'' on Martha Stewart Radio. In 2013 he began broadcasting the popular podcas
Talking With My Mouth Full
In August 2009 his first book, ''The New Portuguese Table: Exciting Flavors From Europe's Western Coast'', was published by Clarkson Potter and won the 2010 First Book/Julia Child Award. A humorist, Leite brings a skewed and funny sensibility to the world of food. In 2016, he was featured on the "Our Portuguese Table" podcast hosted by Angela Simões and Maria Lawton.
Notes on a Banana: A Memoir of Food, Love, and Manic Depression
Leite's second book, was published on April 11, 2017, b
Dey Street Books
a division of

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...

Awards

* Association of Food Journalists Awards * Awards Beard James * Bert Greene Awards * Culinary Hall of Fame Induction * IACP/Julia Child Award for Best First Book

Bibliography

Notes on a Banana: A Memoir of Food, Love, and Manic Depression
Dey Street Books: 2017.
The New Portuguese Table: Exciting Flavors From Europe's Western Coast
Clarkson Potter: 2009.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leite, David 1960 births American food writers Living people American people of Portuguese descent American male non-fiction writers Writers from Fall River, Massachusetts People from Swansea, Massachusetts 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers American LGBTQ writers LGBTQ chefs People with bipolar disorder Portuguese-language American writers