Do you have a personal blog?

Sort of. It's in the works. Ask me later.

What is your day job, or rather, what do you do when you're not food blogging?

I write about food for other publications like Time Out New York, Gourmet and Metromix. I've also written for places including The New York Times, Interior Design, ELLE, New York Magazine and Salon. And I was a baker in a past life before attending the French Culinary Institute for formal training.

How long have you been blogging with Slashfood and what is your favorite post?

Less than a month. If we're talking about a favorite post that I've written, I'm partial to my post about cooking an ostrich egg.



Do you have any non-food-related, non-blogging hobbies?

Many. Photography, road-tripping, music, film, collecting old and weird postcards, sewing, taking long and aimless walks around New York City, and watching TV shows about awkward teenagers like "Degrassi High," "'Freaks and Geeks" and "Skins."

Not every foodie does, so we have to ask. Do you cook?

Yes, every day, despite the fact that my entire kitchen could fit in my parents' pantry.

What is your most prized utensil/gadget in the kitchen?

It's a dead heat between my Microplane and Le Creuset Dutch oven.

List three things in your refrigerator right now.

Surprisingly good pickled herring from Ikea, gianduja spread and a bunch of radishes.

You have to impress a date with a meal. What are you going to make?

It's not particularly fancy, but my boyfriend is a sucker for my late-night omelets with hash browns.

What is the last thing you ate?

That would be breakfast. Toasted ciabattina from La Brea Bakery with peanut butter and raw Hawaiian honey, and a cup of Throat Soother tea.

Confession time – what do you eat that will get you banned from Slashfood?

I have an annual guilty, red-faced fling with Cadbury Crème Eggs. We meet, do what we need to do and then agree not to talk about it for the next 364 days.

Your Mom makes the best _____.

Coffee cake. She substitutes plain yogurt for the sour cream called for in the recipe, throws in a bunch of cinnamon-sugar, and the results are transcendent. This is the cake that sustained a thousand book club meetings.

Which chef would you most like to have come into your kitchen and cook you dinner?

Graham Kerr, The Galloping Gourmet.

With whom would you most like to eat dinner?

My maternal grandmother, who died when I was three and who was by all accounts a first-rate human being and fantastic hostess; Clementine Paddleford, one of the first ladies of food writing, and Roddy McDowall, for the gossip.

Your drink of choice?

Hot chocolate from La Charlotte on the Ile St-Louis in Paris. Failing that, Jameson, neat.

Where was your best restaurant dining experience?

Ooh, that's a tough one. It's a draw between Au Pied de Cochon in Montreal, which has possibly the most vibrant, life-affirming atmosphere I've ever experienced in a restaurant -- and Burt's Place in Chicago, where my boyfriend and I consumed an entire 14-inch deep-dish pizza last New Year's Eve. It was the first time in 31 years that they'd been open on New Year's Eve, and almost no one was there. So we sat there talking with Burt and his wife, Sharon, who kept serving us slice after slice until there was nothing left but crumbs and the humbling realization that we'd just eaten a whole pizza. I didn't need to eat for the next 24 hours.

The worst?

That would be the time I visited Rikers Island for a class I was taking. I'm not sure if a prison cafeteria really counts as a restaurant, but since it's the closest thing to a restaurant the prisoners get, I'm going to go ahead and say this takes the prize for the worst meal I've ever been served.

Do you want fries with that?

At the risk of being excommunicated by my fellow Slashfoodies, no.

What foods do you think should be banished from existence?

Go-GURT. Or anything that the processed food industry mislabels as "food."

What do you see as the biggest "thing" in food for the coming year?

If the recession keeps slogging along, then the continued proliferation of sandwich and pizza shops, as well as more people packing their lunch. A backlash to salty desserts. And hopefully people just caring more and more about where their food is coming from.