culinary school graduate, writer, editor, and sometime cheesemonger

About me I am a culinary school graduate, freelance writer, food magazine and cookbook editor, test kitchen chef, and sometime-cheesemonger. Recently, I helped develop and launch Williams-Sonoma’s new Mastering cookbook series, and am a weekly food columnist at KQED’s Bay Area Bites and copyediting for KQED’s new local restaurant show, Check, Please! Bay Area. I also desig, own, and write my food/humor website, The Grub Report, which won a Diarist award for Best Experimental Journal in 2003. When I’m not eating, cooking, or writing about it, I’m being paid by Television Without Pity (www.televisionwithoutpity.com) to sit in front of the TV and point and laugh evilly. My food writing was recently published in Digital Dish: Five Seasons of the Freshest Recipes and Writing from Food Blogs Around the World (Press for Change) and The Best Food Writing 2005 (Avalon) and I’ve just finished authoring CocktailSmarts with SmartsCo. I live in San Francisco with my husband and two cats where we eat lots of food.

Member Since

Jul 12, 2006

Sites

• The Grub Report

What is the next…

Purchase you’ll make?

Groaning bags of produce at the San Francisco Farmers Market at the Ferry Building and fresh chèvre. I’m participating in the Bay Area Eat Local .

Trend in design?

Trend in design?

Car you’d like to own?

We just bought a 2006 Prius, so I think the next car we’d buy is another Prius -- one for each of us.

Big step you’d like to make?

My own cookbook. Or novel. Or memoir. Whatever comes first.

Fad that will fade?

Molecular Gastronomy—the foams, gelées, and deep-fried mayonnaise cubes of overwrought “haute cuisine” are annoying and not real food.

Vacation you’ll take?

To Minneapolis, MN to see my family and eat at Town Talk Diner on E. Hennepin. I’m already planning on ordering the “Grains and Greens Salad” with .

Thing you’re going to fight for?

Animal rights, legal marriage for everyone, and bringing Ioan Gruffudd back to television.

Secret that’s going to leak?

Cheese cures cancer.

Hollywood blockbuster going to be about?

Teenie bopper Wonder Woman.

Life you’ll lead?

The life of an apprentice baker. I’m hopeless at baking, but I intent to apply myself, read lots of books, and completely cover my kitchen in flour in my pursuit of the perfect cake, pie crust, scone, and loaf of bread. Plus, my readers love to hear my “kitchen disaster” stories. It makes them feel good that I went to culinary school and can still screw up in the kitchen.

Fountain of youth?

Izze Sparkling Clementine

Book you’ll read?

The Pursuit of Love & Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford

Thing that will change the world?

The next presidential election and chocolate-covered cherry Diet Coke

Guilty-pleasure food in which you’ll indulge?

Cheap grocery store “brie” microwaved to gooey runniness, spread on crackers and topped with chutney.

Person to whom you’ll say, “I love you”?

My husband or my cats, depending on who purrs first.