Subject Matter Expert (Food Critic)

Work Location: Anywhere within the US (Remote)
Engagement Model: Freelancer / Independent Contractor
Weekly Workload: Up to 40 hours/week
Required Experience: Professional experience as a food critic, culinary writer, restaurant reviewer, or local journalist specializing in dining and food culture.
Start Date: ASAP

Subject Matter Expert (Food Critic)

DataForce by TransPerfect is seeking experienced Food Critic Subject Matter Experts with deep familiarity in the U.S. food landscape, including local dining culture, regional cuisines, restaurant trends, and culinary journalism. This role supports next-generation AI innovation by combining expert-level food knowledge with data evaluation and model training.

Ideal candidates will have a strong background in food criticism, restaurant reviews, culinary journalism, or hospitality-focused writing. Your insights will directly guide the development of AI systems designed to understand food culture, local dining recommendations, and nuanced culinary experiences across the U.S.

Main Responsibilities

• Generate, review, and validate high-quality food and restaurant–related data for AI training.

• Provide expert evaluation of AI outputs related to dining recommendations, cuisine identification, food descriptions, and local context.

• Assess AI-generated content for accuracy, cultural/locational relevance, culinary nuance, and adherence to food terminology.

• Offer detailed feedback on model performance, including interpretation of food categories, regional cuisine variations, and restaurant types.

• Assist in building benchmark datasets focused on U.S. dining culture, local knowledge, and food-related decision-making.

Expert Profile

Food critics and local journalists with deep familiarity with the U.S. market, similar to teams that have contributed to previous localized data collection initiatives.

Key Skills

• Strong geographical knowledge of U.S. cities, dining neighborhoods, and regional cuisine trends.

• Proven place recommendation expertise, ideally with the ability to contextualize food reviews based on local culture and culinary identity.

• Deep local familiarity—ideally, tasks should be routed to raters who intimately understand their region’s food scene.

Requirements

• 5+ years of professional experience as a food critic, culinary journalist, restaurant reviewer, or similar role.

• Ability to clearly explain dining experiences, food quality, regional cuisine differences, and restaurant characteristics.

• Interest in AI/ML, recommendation systems, or content evaluation.

• Strong analytical and communication skills.

• Previous experience working with AI, data annotation, or model evaluation (preferred).

DataForce by TransPerfect is part of the TransPerfect family of companies, the world’s largest provider of language and technology solutions for global business, with offices in more than 100 cities worldwide. We offer high-quality data for Human-Machine Interaction to some of the most prestigious technology companies in the world. Our department focuses on gathering, enriching and processing data for Machine Learning in different AI domains. 

To learn more about DataForce please visit us at https://www.transperfect.com/dataforce.
For more information on the TransPerfect Family of Companies, please visit our website at www.transperfect.com