My passion for food and literature naturally guided me towards a career in food editing and media. Food and books are two objects that have been instrumental in my life, especially in finding an abundance of beauty and meaning in the world. The materiality of food, juxtaposed with its expression through the abstract medium of language, fascinates me. 

I grew up in a small town in the Midwest called Peculiar, in the state of Missouri. I dropped out of college when I was twenty to attend culinary school and spent the first half of my twenties working in kitchens alongside some of the most resilient and dedicated individuals I've ever encountered. Hospitality folks will always be my extended family.  

Ever drawn to questions about meaning, beauty, and justice I returned to school and completed a BA in Philosophy in 2018, then an MA in Gastronomy (Food Studies) in 2021. My studies focused on exploring food through a feminist-philosophical lens. I was curious to understand how foodways reinforce traditional gender roles and other social hierarchies like race and class. Peering into the lives and works of iconic twentieth-century women writers, including M.F.K. Fisher, Gertrude Stein, and Elizabeth David, I studied queerness and resistance while questioning whether the pleasure of tasting an apricot tart is in fact more pleasurable than a perfectly rendered sentence about one.

My life in Philadelphia these days is filled with cooking, reading, growing tomatoes in the summer and thinking about growing tomatoes in the winter, drinking coffee, and spending time with the silly creatures that stalk about my apartment, Pim and Simone. As for literature, my favorite novel is Jean Giono's Hill, while Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin remains the most moving. My favorite cookbook is Thalia Ho’s Wild Sweetness, and topping my list of favorite poems is Wallace Stevens' "Sunday Morning."