Trevor White is an Irish publisher, food critic, and museum director. White was born in Dublin in 1972 and was educated at Trinity College, Dublin. After graduating from Trinity College with a diploma in Theater Studies he worked as a freelance journalist in Cape Town, Prague, Bermuda and New York. White then joined In Dublin as a columnist and, later, Food & Wine magazine. He worked as an editor in New York in the 1990's, and returned to Ireland to launch The Dubliner magazine in 2001. After his time at The Dubliner, White then went on to create the Dublin civic initiative "City of a Thousand Welcomes" and a new museum for the city, The Little Museum of Dublin, in 2011.
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The Dubliner began publishing ten issues a year. It covered Irish culture and its contents included opinion pieces, political and social commentary. It also included reviews of restaurants, books, music, comedy, theater, movies and art. It was targeted at a Dublin audience, however it soon became available in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. [1]
The magazine was admired; Graydon Carter of Vanity Fair described it as "a fantastic publication" but according to White it was "an instant failure", and within a few months it was close to bankruptcy.[2] White struggled to keep The Dubliner afloat for the next eight years."[3]
White sold The Dubliner—and its 100 Best Restaurants Guide—to magazine publisher Michael O'Doherty in November 2008.[4]
The period in which Trevor White founded and edited The Dubliner magazine is recounted in White's book The Dubliner Diaries, published by Lilliput Press in 2010.
White also published The Dubliner 100 Best Restaurants Guide, and it became the best-selling restaurant guide in Ireland.[5]
In 2011, White launched a civic initiative called City of a Thousand Welcomes. It is a greeting service that sees volunteer Dubliners welcome visitors to the city by bringing them out for an informal chat over a free cup of tea or a pint. It was hoped that the initiative would attract 1000 volunteers to sign up as Dublin Ambassadors within three months. The Irish Times reported that the target was reached within 24 hours.[6]
In July 2011, The Boston Globe reported that "one of the goals of the project… is to stamp out… cynicism and encourage Dubliners to embrace their history of connecting with others by welcoming them."[7]
In 2011, White also announced plans to open a new museum in Dublin on St Stephen's Green, and invited the public to loan or donate artifacts for the museum,[8] to be called "The Little Museum of Dublin". It will relate the political, social and cultural history of Dublin in the 20th Century.[9]
White is the author of Kitchen Con (2006), a social history of restaurant criticism and The Dubliner Diaries (2010), a portrait of the Celtic Tiger.
He is married to Susan Jane Murray, a noted nutritional cook who writes a regular column for The Sunday Independent and features on Tom Dunne's show on Newstalk.