Partnerships:
Whole Foods Market Cooking
HarperCollins
Viking
OXO
Bottlerocket Wine & Spirit
- Alex escorting her son Kai around the Union Square Greenmarket.
- Alexandra Lutz
- President
- Before joining Food52, Alex was the GM of CollegeHumor, a leading comedy web business and digital production studio owned by Barry Diller's IAC. There, she managed, as she says, “all the non-funny stuff” -- the P&L, operations, strategy and business development. She was once a management consultant at Booz Allen, where she helped Fortune 100 media companies navigate the digital waters, and was a producer for ABC News, where she worked for Nightline, World News Tonight and Good Morning America. While at ABC, Alex won both an Emmy and an Edward R Murrow Award. During the years she spent as a reporter in Moscow and Eastern Europe, Alex partook of many "exotic" home-cooked meals with colorful characters: mounds of black caviar with a sturgeon poacher in Makhachkala, a port on the Caspian; breakfast khash and a moonshine vodka chaser with a farmer's family in Yerevan; fresh-slaughtered lamb shashlyk and khachapuri in Tbilisi with the entire population of a small village; many kinds of blini (buckwheat, whole wheat, potato) with many kinds of toppings (red/black caviar, salmon, mushrooms, sour cream, homemade jam) with many, many Russian politicians, army captains, surgeons, prison guards, biznessmeni, and even some regular folks. Follow Alex on Twitter: lutza
- Kristen serving up Horseradish Bloody Marys to the staff; her ideal s'more.
- Kristen Miglore
- Senior Editor
- Kristen is the quiet force of Food52, writing, editing, selecting photos, tweeting like a madwoman, disciplining misbehaving spammers, and taking care of our messes with patience and humor. She got the food bug from her parents. During high school, Kristen input menus for her father’s online restaurant guide (he and Kristen’s mother also have a cookbook site). But then she rebelled and worked as an economist for a few years, she says, “until I got fed up, googled 'Food Studies' on a whim, and moved to New York ... to study food, whatever that means.” Kristen sailed through the Institute of Culinary Education and got her Master's in Food Studies at NYU. After paying her dues at Saveur and Martha Stewart, she took a deep dive in the start-up ocean with us. In addition to her posts on Food52, Kristen’s lively and graceful writing can also be found in The Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic. Through her we’ve learned about Sugar Bush Squirrel and Bluebird’s doughnuts. And though she’s often trolling the net, Kristen is so efficient that -- as Food52 legend has it -- one day when heading to work from the East Village, she slipped on ice and tumbled badly, but managed to text us before she got back up. Now that’s dedication! She unearths Genius Recipes too -- watch for her column on Wednesdays. Follow Kristen on Twitter: miglorious
- Peter in the pumpkin patch; his 9th birthday cake (go Mom!); vegetables from his rooftop garden.
- Peter Steinberg
- Product Development Guy
- In a classic New York real estate scenario, Amanda met Peter when she and her husband were looking to buy his apartment. The sale never happened, but years later, they sat next to each other on the subway. He was carrying a baguette from Whole Foods. They’ve been friends ever since. He recently joined Amanda and Merrill at Food52 to advocate for the user experience, plan ahead for the engineers, dig into SEO and analytics and whatever else needs doing. Peter lives just a few blocks from Amanda, making his perfectly-timed-for-recipe-tasting drop-ins uncanny. He is known around the neighborhood for his chili and pumpkin-carving party, for which hundreds of Halloween-ers descend on his home. Before joining Food52, Peter co-founded Flashlight Worthy Book Recommendations. Before that he led Product Development at Meetup and Zagat Survey with a palate cleanser of work at Vindigo in between. Before that he spent 5 years at America Online before it became AOL doing a variety of product-oriented stuff. Oh, and he worked briefly at the C.I.A. No, not that cooking one.
- Kfir's fashion statements, at work and in transit.
- Kfir Shay
- Senior Developer
- With many-a-year spent in development at MLB Advanced Media, and most recently, Gilt Groupe, Kfir has been a fixture of the Food52 team since fall of 2010. Having grown up in Israel where he served in the Israeli Defense Force, he is a veteran of internet start-up culture and routinely hooks us all in to what’s happening in the tech world. In and around hacking Arduino, taking his cats out for walks in Central Park and running the NYC marathon (barefoot), Kfir has been known to hop the 7 train to the far reaches of the city in pursuit of great ethnic food. From the near-office eats to high-end NY dining, he is a go-to consult for any Food52er who needs a candid low-down on a local restaurant -- in all honesty, we’re hard-pressed to find a spot Kfir hasn’t tried. Follow Kfir on Twitter: kfir
- Jon with a wall of Post-its and (way better) a wall of hot sauce.
- Jonathan Stavis
- Senior Developer
- Jon comes to Food52 via Syncline, GeoTrust and Angelsoft.net and is a master at swiftly resolving any technological bugaboo, great or small, that happens to be vexing us. Having acted as CSA site coordinator and spent five months WWOOFing his way through New Zealand, he’s also Food52’s most dedicated gardener. He grows much of his own food in a community garden plot near his home in Astoria, Queens, keeps 1,000 (and counting!) compost-eating worms, and dreams of starting a technology education and ewaste recycling organization.
- Francesca now; then; the kitchen (with bathtub) in her Hell's Kitchen apartment.
- Francesca Gilberti
- Assistant Editor
- Eight years ago, Francesca wrote Amanda asking if she could do an internship with her at the Times. Francesca was still in high school in Pennsylvania at the time, but that didn’t stop her. She’s been pursuing a life of eating well from an early age. Growing up on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Francesca would hop off the school bus at 113th street and grab a seat at the bar at Pertutti’s, where the owner would feed her cake and profiteroles until her parents picked her up. Later, in Philadelphia, she befriended Craig Laban, the food critic at the Philadelphia Inquirer, eating her way around the city with him, and cheesemongered at DiBruno Bros. in Philadelphia in the summer. She wrote her college essay about her Kitchen-Aid mixer and her Harvard thesis about Elizabeth David. She says, “I could live on beans and greens (borlotti and wild chicories) and anything made with farro (cake, salad, warm with broccoli, you name it) and I eat yogurt and chocolate at least once a day, but not together.” After four years working with the Rome Sustainable Food Project at the American Academy in Rome, we feel Francesca has found the right place to indulge her inner Elizabeth David -- back in New York, at Food52. Follow Francesca on twitter: farro10.
- Jenny sidled up to a big present in Amanda's office; Jenny's Just Good Chili.
- Jennifer Steinhauer
- Contributing Writer
- Jennifer -- aka "Jenny" -- is an old friend of Amanda's (set her up on a blind-date with her now husband, Tad). She and Amanda bonded over food and used to cook dinner together every Sunday. Now Jennifer is in Washington, D.C., where she covers Congress for The New York Times and throws the occasional five-course dinner party and Food52 potluck. She dreamed up the idea to write a column on weeknight cooking for Food52 and we happily obliged. Look for her posts, which appear on Mondays under "Jenny's in the Kitchen." Check out Jenny's novel, "Beverly Hills Adjacent," and follow her on Twitter: jestei
- Stephanie at the James Beard House; her astonishingly efficient kitchen.
- Stephanie Bourgeois
- Head Recipe Tester
- Stephanie has been testing recipes for Food52 since November 2009 and now manages our small army of testers too, all while running the PR and social media show at the Institute of Culinary Education and doing recipe testing, styling and photography for the James Beard Foundation's blog Delights & Prejudices. We don’t know how she gets it all done -- all we know is we’re glad to have her around. She's a graduate of the FCI and NYU's Food Studies Master's Program, where she did her Master's thesis on Christmas cookies. Not surprisingly, she's also an accomplished synchronized swimmer. Follow Stephanie on Twitter: biffbourgeois
- Maddy and her knife collection (don't mess with Maddy).
- Maddy Martin
- Whole Foods Market Cooking Senior Editor
- A graduate of ICE, Maddy started out testing recipes for us on weekends, writing blog posts, and heading up our Wildcard-vetting process with gusto (she even designed a fancy database to help scout out the hidden recipe gems). She wound up getting more Food52 than she ever imagined and now oversees the action at our partner sites at Whole Foods Market Cooking. She digs antiquarian cookbooks and thinks Calvin Trillin is the funniest food writer of all time. Follow her on Twitter: MadelaineMartin
- Elena looking like a true starlet; her lovely apple dishware.
- Elena Parker
- Videographer
- The granddaughter of a peach farmer, Elena got her B.A. in Film Studies from Columbia, where she was the executive producer of CTV News. She then went on to co-write and co-produce the HBO Documentary "Youth Knows No Pain." Elena currently works on video and new media projects for the New York Public Library. Her videos have appeared on The New York Times website and Mashable.com. Elena has produced, filmed and edited promotional materials for "Instinctiv," and she has worked with producer Kathryn Tucker (The Station Agent), NBC/Universal, Funny Garbage and the Museum of the Moving Image, among others. Although she now lives in Brooklyn, Elena hails from Hammonton, NJ, aka "the Blueberry Capital of the World." Check out her blog, Drawing the Eye, read her Dinner + a Movie column on Food52, and follow her on Twitter: elenakathryn
- Martine and her stylish kitchen (Martine is a fan of coffee).
- Martine Trelaun
- Shop Editor
- Martine and Amanda met through mutual friends, and through their love of tea and techy things, became fast friends on Twitter. Martine is a talented designer -- see her work at Design + Know-How -- and is the coolest person in Red Hook. She kindly volunteered to help bring order, harmony and excellent finds to the Shop section of our site. Follow her on Twitter: mtrelaun
- Kristy (cheers!); her egg cups with caviar spoons (living the life of soft boiled egg spoons).
- Kristy Mucci
- Associate Editor
- From a former life in book publishing, Kristy has finally come to terms with the fact that the internet is the way of the future (and she’s totally into it!). And so, she finds herself at Food52, eagerly diving into anything we throw her way: from blog posts of all kinds to grocery detail to assembling our weekly newsletter. We all aspire to her diligence in the kitchen: she frequently bakes her own bread and makes as many things from scratch as possible (think jam, almond milk, pop tarts). Normally strict about eating only local produce, she can never resist a ripe avocado.
- Jennifer with her trusty blue Le Creuset; a simple tomato salad you might see on her table come summer.
- Jennifer Vogliano
- Test Kitchen Assistant & Recipe Tester
- The day Jennifer started working with us last fall, testing recipes and managing our test kitchen, Food52’s Tuesday photo shoots got a whole lot more orderly (and fun!). From her first job at 16 filling cannoli at a pastry shop in Connecticut to the regular family gatherings at her husband’s parents’ ever-popular Upper East Side restaurant Il Vagabondo, Jennifer has a clear knack for both cooking great food and making sense out of a busy kitchen.
- Charlotte dining out; the cover of her favorite cookbook, Anne Rosensweig's Arcadia.
- Charlotte Druckman
- Co-founder of the Tournament of Cookbooks
- Charlotte Druckman is a great friend, unmatched enthusiast, and a journalist born, raised and currently based in New York City. Amanda first "met" Charlotte on Twitter, where the two started brainstorming about an NCAA-style online cookbook tournament. All it took was a coffee meeting at Falai Panetteria on the Lower East Side, and The Piglet was born! Charlotte has covered food (mostly), style, design, travel, fashion and beauty for various publications, including The New York Times Style Magazine, Departures, Gastronomica and Travel + Leisure. As of this year, you can find her in the Wall Street Journal's "Off Duty" section (almost) every week. This fall (2011) "Cooking Without Borders," Chef Anita Lo's cookbook, which she co-wrote, will hit stands. Currently, she's working on her new book, "SKIRT STEAK: Women Chefs on Standing the Heat & Staying in the Kitchen" (Chronicle, 2012). Follow her on Twitter: cettedrucks
- Shelly marketing; in a kitchen in Bastide.
- Shelly Peppel
- News Editor
- Before joining Food52, Shelly co-founded and edited Food News Journal with longtime friend and collaborator Fran Brennan. After meeting while both lived in the south of France, the two traded books, recipes and contraband American peanut butter before trading their offline careers for a life in the burgeoning world of online food writing and media. Shelly is a committed locavore: One morning, when trying to come up with a dinner-party menu, she was distracted by the incessant crowing of her multiplying rooster population and had an idea. That evening the coq au vin was a hit, and the next morning's sun rose to a welcome silence. A California native now based in the Bay Area, Shelly has worked in book publishing with HarperCollins, Tarcher/Penguin, KQED, Harcourt Trade and the BBC. She has created thousands of late-night copy edits, hundreds of book and cover designs, dozens of recipes, and two children.
- Fran in headshot mode; at work (with cookies and wine).
- Fran Brennan
- News Editor
- The first time Fran served gumbo at a New Year's Eve party, a guest expressed shock that it was an untested recipe. It had never occurred to Fran to take a test spin before serving something to guests and still doesn't. Since that party, Fran's career has evolved from news reporting to food writing to co-founding Food News Journal with her friend and fellow Francophile Shelly Peppel. Fran started her journalism career as an editor at Miami New Times before moving to the Miami Herald as a reporter, where she was a member of the Herald's team covering Hurricane Andrew and its aftermath. The paper won a Pulitzer Prize for public service for its coverage of the storm. Later, Fran reported for People Magazine and worked as Miami bureau chief before moving to Washington, DC. As a freelancer, her work has also appeared in National Geographic Books, the Washington Post and several online food and lifestyle sites. Food is such an integral part of Fran's life and psyche that she considers a highlight of her parenting career the moment her oldest son -- a veteran of countless pizza parties and chicken-nuggest fests -- asked for fish tacos and key lime pie on his birthday. As for her gumbo, guests from that first party still call regularly to ask for the recipe. And it was a really long time ago.
- Victoria, beer-in-hand, gazing out over water and a lovely seafood soup she made.
- Victoria Ross
- Recipe Tester
- Veteran of the Saveur magazine test kitchen and French Culinary Institute grad, Victoria hails from New Zealand and has even been known to test Food52 recipes from there, somehow rarely missing a deadline from the other side of the world. She rides her bicycle every spare minute she gets (racking up over 3,500 miles in 2010 alone!), makes delectable croissants, finds knife-sharpening therapeutic, and spends part of her vacation each year working in a butcher shop.
- Natalie with a platter of crudité; a healthy bowl of whole wheat spaghetti with zucchini and parmigiano she concocted.
- Natalie Barbarese
- Recipe Tester
- Natalie wants her life to be about one thing: FOOD. In addition to testing recipes for Food52, giving cooking lessons and recommending recipes to her friends, Natalie is starting her own personal chef service called Broccoli Rose. She loves cooking vegetarian and vegan dishes, but there may be an occasional bacon slice here and there. She also enjoys helping people with special dietary needs by preparing meals that are gluten-free or low in salt and sugar. She hopes to help her friends and clients stay healthy and creative with their food! Check out the website: www.broccolirose.com.
- Rebecca, in shades of her favorite kitchen tool.
- Rebecca Marx
- Recipe Tester
- Born in Alabama, raised in Michigan, and a resident of New York since 2001, Rebecca was lucky enough to grow up with a father who was always baking bread and a mother who would let her eat half-baked brownies straight out of the pan. She's been working with food since she was 15, starting at Zingerman's Delicatessen (which left her fascinated and terrified of meat) and Bakehouse (much more successful -- she hasn't stopped baking since). A graduate of Columbia's School of Journalism and the French Culinary Institute, Rebecca is a widely published writer currently stationed at the Village Voice (as a staff writer for the food blog Fork in the Road) and Edible Queens (as the deputy editor). She's also written stories about food and not-food for publications including the New York Times, New York, Elle, Salon, Every Day With Rachael Ray, Time Out NY, and the late and lamented Gourmet.com. Check out her (mostly) food photography on Flickr.
- Annie brandishing a deep-fried turkey leg; the turkey himself; gingerbread assembly.
- Annie Petito
- Recipe Tester
- Annie is a multi-media food whiz. After graduating from ICE and doing time in the Saveur magazine test kitchen, she's made the food TV rounds, serving as Associate Producer on two seasons of The Cooking Channel's Food(ography) and Research Assistant for The Food Network's Chopped, among others. And now she's tackling the wild world of online food media with us! When we learned that her mom had to plunk her in front of old episodes of PBS's The Frugal Gourmet just to get her to eat, it all added up. Annie is deeply afraid of pigeons and wishes more people would learn to love the fish spatula -- it's more versatile than it looks.
- Victoria Spencer
- Editors’ Picks Editor
- An Edinburgh expat, Victoria oversees the entire community-testing arm of our Editors’ Pick awards, from posting the candidates each week and moderating dibs-calling to sifting through testers’ reviews and awarding the honors -- no small task. Luckily, she’s a pro, having worked in editing and writing about food for years in various media, including Metropolitan Home and the late, great Gourmet and Williams-Sonoma Taste. Her favorite kitchen tool is the silcone spatula, for enabling her to get the very last bit of cake batter out of the bowl (she considers this good Scottish thrift) and she avoids recipes that require a mandoline, due to a traumatic sunchoke-slicing incident. Check out her website: victoriaspencer.net
- Heather Schroder
- Agent; International Creative Management
- Amanda told her the idea behind Food52 over lunch at Mary's Fish Camp and she's been our most enthusiastic advocate ever since. Heather introduced us to Bob Miller at HarperCollins, Pat and Eric at 10x and to some of our best advisors. In addition to being a skillful negotiator, Heather's also an exceptional cook who prepares food for a legion at Thanksgiving and orders Alphonso mangoes by the crate.
- Jason Rapp
- Advisor
- We met Jason through a friend early on, and he's been an invaluable resource as we've evolved and grown. He is currently the president of Mahalo, Inc. Mahalo.com is a place where consumers can learn about thousands of topics via articles, videos and question and answer forums. Before he joined Mahalo, Jason advised start-ups on fundraising, M&A, strategy and business development. He was also a senior executive for Barry Diller's IAC, where he was CEO of Gifts.com, and before that, he was head of operations for NYTimes.com. (Yes, he makes us feel like total underachievers!) Jason lives in Santa Monica, California with his wife and two children.
- Tad Friend and Jonathan Dorman
- Our recipe tasters, advisors and late-night email tolerators. You're the best. Follow them on Twitter: tadfriend and jidorman
