ABOUT THIS COOK:

I'm an ex-economist, ex-Californian who moved to New York to work in food media in 2007. Dodgy career choices aside, I can't help but apply the rational tendencies of my former life to things like: recipe tweaking, digging up obscure facts about pizza, and deciding how many pastries to put in my purse for "later."

• What is the strangest food you have ever eaten?
  A live grub in a Brazilian rain forest. All the cool kids were doing it.

• What do you cook when home alone?
  Anything and everything, but mostly fried eggs on toast

• Your most treasured kitchen possession:
  My Mac Santoku and my grandmother's Tupperware salt shaker

• The ideal number of guests for a dinner party is:
  In my typical New York apartment, 6 is a crowd -- but a happy one.