Food Writing Work Samples

Three stories I’m most proud of:

1. “Columbia’s hidden figure: Verna Laboy brings Annie Fisher to life,” Vox Magazine, 2017 (feature on beaten biscuits, race, and how people get forgotten — the magazine’s cover story. View it in print here. This story won the best student writing on food award from the Association of Food Journalists in 2018.)
2. “The St. Paul-based inventor of Go-Gurt tells the dramatic story of his totally tubular idea,” City Pages, 2018
3. “Angling for Catfishing’s Future,” Vox Magazine, 2018

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My work: (in roughly reverse chronological order)

(or see: food writing | health care/news reporting | audio/podcast work)

For City Pages: On offering the inventor of Go-Gurt a tube of Go-Gurt (and hearing the story of how he created it)

For Extra Crispy: On the classic Danish dessert (and mindbending tongue-twister) rødgrød med fløde; on the poorly-named first successful gelatin dessert powder Bromangelon

For Roads & Kingdoms: On sfenj, the Moroccan breakfast doughnut that nearly became a Jewish Hanukkah staple

For Vox Magazine: On mid-Missouri catfishing culture and the debate between catch-and-release and catch-for-dinner; on the early 20th-century black chef Annie Fisher and her erasure from (and revival in) local history; on the artistry of plating; on a medical professor’s views on discrimination faced by Native American patients

For Plateselector: On Restaurante Last Monkey, an Asian-fusion joint in Barcelona (article in Spanish)

For Food Tank: On the Minneapolis winery that makes cider from apples they pick from your front yard; on Food Network chef Justin Warner’s perspectives on the food system; on the ways the Trump administration could reshape food policy

For the Columbia Missourian: On the barriers transgender people face when seeking health care; on the challenges posed to pharmacists by Missouri’s lack of a prescription drug monitoring database

For MOVE Magazine: On a new late-night pizza-delivery window at a popular local slice shop; on the linguistic differences between “donut” and “doughnut”

For The Tower Magazine: On the virtues of Amba, an Iraqi-Israeli spicy mango condiment 

For the Boston Globe opinion section: On the benefits of bookstores at memorial sites