Polished Palate Biography

Chris Sherman, Judge

Chris Sherman, Food-Wine-Spirit Critic, St. Petersburg Times

Chris Sherman has written about food, wine and spirits for 25 years and has been a respected critic for the St. Petersburg Times since 1988.

He has won numerous awards from the Association of Food Journalists and other organizations; he was a finalist in food criticism at the James Beard competition nominee, and has been a member of the nominating panels for James Beard and the Slow Food movement. He has written two books, Florida Eats (1987) and the Buizz on Wine (2000).

Sherman grew up in Cincinnati , the home of five-way chili and five-star chefs, and attended the College of William and Mary in Virginia and Stanford University . In his career he has covered murder trials, politics, country music, architecture and black history, for newspapers and magazines in Washington , New York , Louisiana and North Carolina .

In 2006 the historic home of his first newspaper employer, the Raleigh Times, was restored and converted into a first class bar of the same name in downtown Raleigh .