Award-winning columnist Bret Thorn is responsible for spotting and reporting on culinary trends across the country.

He joined Nation’s Restaurant News in 1999 after spending about five years in Thailand, where he covered business, banking and finance as well as restaurant reviews and food columns for Manager magazine and Asia Times newspaper.

A magna cum laude graduate of Tufts University in Medford, Mass., with a bachelor’s degree in history, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Mr. Thorn also studied traditional French cooking at Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine in Paris.

His column in Nation’s Restaurant News won the 2006 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award for best staff-written editorial or opinion column.

He lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.