Below, you’ll find bios of our writers and contributing photographers. Bios include an update on the Spring 2013 writing season! See the SCHEDULE page for more details regarding upcoming posts. Clicking an author’s name will direct you to all of their posts!
Amanda is the Director and Webmaster of the Culinary Society Blog. Amanda joined Culinary Society after a suggestion from a friend during freshman year, starting as a restaurant reviewer and event photographer. While her own cooking skills are slowly improving, Amanda is a very supportive eater of her friends’ gourmet cooking. For the fall season, Amanda is writing on every Friday, but alternating between two series. The first is Fika Fridays which will explore the Swedish concept of taking coffee breaks, and the second is Foodie Flicks (I like alliteration, as you may have noticed) where she’ll watch/review any movie that features food as a protagonist or merely as a backdrop. She recently did a food feature in Columbia’s Arts & Fashion magazine, Hoot. Her favorite food is any version of mac’n'cheese (first post proof).
Having grown up in California and the French Alps with her parent’s home-cooked meals and emphasis on family dinners, Manon has gained a particular appreciation for eating, cooking, and talking about food, as well as sustainable and organic agriculture and, most importantly, the fact that food brings people together. She has been writing for the blog since the summer of 2012. Her favorite food is her mother’s roast chicken served with her father’s stuffing and rice. Manon will be writing “Striving to become a college gourmet,” a series to appear every Thursday about the food she’s been cooking or eating and about some of the Society’s events.
Hi! I am Melina, and I am honored to be a series writer/contributor for Columbia’s Culinary Society Blog. It sounds so fancy, doesn’t it? For me, going out to eat is an expense I am more than willing to splurge on. Coming from a Greek family, food has always been central in my life. You don’t eat and you get scrutinized. I cannot say that I am the best cook (much to my grandmother’s dismay), but I can say that I am a darn good eater. As I embark on my quest to discover the best hidden restaurants in NYC, I’ll take you along for the ride. Melina will be continuing her series Hidden Gems which will take place bi-monthly on Sundays.
Tiffany is ravenous about food. She likes to eat, cook, play, create, write, photograph, and think about food. When it comes to being adventurous or daring, she’s the one. She has tried alligator meat, frog legs, and jelly fish, to name a few. And she likes creating combinations like ice cream on toast, or strawberries with vinegar. While there have been (slight) disasters in the kitchen before, it has always been a continual learning and fun process. Most of all, she believes cooking as a way to catch up with friends, try new recipes, be creative, and de-stress after a long day.
Kelcey is a junior at Barnard College majoring in European Studies. She has always loved to be in the kitchen, and prefers to cook at home with friends over going out to eat. Her favorite things to make are Mediterranean-style vegetarian dishes. Although she doesn’t consider herself a baker, she has a soft-spot for any pastry made with copious amounts of butter. Kelcey could never name one food as her singular favorite, but if she had to name the best thing she has eaten recently, it would have to be uni (sea urchin). This fall, Kelcey will be studying abroad and will start a foreign correspondence series “Postcards from Paris.”
Hey my name is Jean Lafontant. I was born in New Orleans and I moved to Colorado when I was 10. I’m a junior in the college and a neuroscience and behavior major. I found out I had Celiacs Disease about a couple of years ago and I’ve also been lactose intolerant since sophomore year of high school. I’m obsessed with the Saints (football). My favorite meal would probably be a hamburger with fries. This fall, Jean will be writing on the third Saturday of every month to talk about gluten free options and methods.
Onella is from Sri Lanka and has an affinity for spicy food (Sri Lankan curry is distinctly different from Indian curry, just so you know!). Since coming to New York, Mexican food (omg tacos!) has jumped to the top of her ‘favourite food’ list. Desserts and baked goods will always hold an irreplaceable place in her heart and her enjoyment in baking rewarded her with the winning entry at the Culinary Society’s Erotic Cake competition 2011. Onella thoroughly enjoys trying out various eateries around the city and is a fan of food trucks carrying unusual fare. She is one of those people who photographs most everything she (or her friends) eat, and her closest friends now know to wait until this process is over before proceeding with their meal. She contributed photographs to the culinary blog last semester and is looking forward to continuing the practice.
Rachel is a sophomore in Columbia College. She enjoys sunshine, Williams Sonoma, and toasty peanut butter and banana sandwiches. After a meatless week in the summer, her meals have centered on fish and soups of all kind. Moroccan flavored vegetable mains are a new obsession. This fall, Rachel will be conducting a variety of interviews throughout New York and exploring Kosher dining & cooking options.
Pippa is a sophomore at Barnard College. She has grown up loving all food but has a special place in her heart for French cuisine. While she doesn’t have a favorite dish her ultimate staple is roast chicken and her must have ingredient is butter. When Pippa isn’t cooking for herself, her friends, or her family, she is out discovering new restaurants in and around NYC. Pippa is passionate about fresh, local, and organic food, preferably with the dirt still on it. Pippa will be writing In Season. Pippa will be writing “In Season”, a bi-monthly series which highlights what’s freshest in NYC and how to prepare it, including recipes and ingredient troubleshooting.
Sarah has a strange addiction to food shows (especially Anthony Bourdain and Iron Chef America) and knows more random facts about food than might be considered “normal.” As a freshman at Barnard and having grown up in Colorado, she looks forward to exploring the city through its food and attempting to find some decent Mexican food this far north. Her favorite foods include but are not by any means limited to peanut butter, falafel, pasta, and pho. This year, Sarah will be writing Westside Watch in which she will explore some of the unique products on the shelves of Westside Market.
Yael is in her third year studying visual arts and business management in Columbia College, and roughly her 19th year studying food. She has an unfortunate sweet tooth and loves to bake everything from compost cookies to Grand Marnier soufflé, but is still an amateur in the real-food cooking department. She especially loves spicy food, but her number one favorite category of food (if not a single dish) is the Italian pasta dishes she grew up on.
Becky is a sophomore at Columbia College who enjoys exploring the city in search of new and exciting food options. Her dorm room is always stocked with hummus, cheese, chocolate, and copious amounts of caffeine. Having grown up in a family where the most common question, even at 9 a.m., is “what’s for dinner,” she has come to appreciate good food and good company. This fall, Becky will be writing a biweekly piece titled “Your Body is Awesome” on all the great things your body can do with different nutrients, and yummy ways to include them in your diet.
Jenny’s first memory of food was of gnawing the ears off of a chocolate Easter rabbit. Since then, she has been inseparable from sugar. From crème brûlée to gulab jamuns, Jenny is willing to search near and far for the best sweets in the city.
James is a sophomore in Columbia College hailing from New Jersey and pursing degrees in history and economics. Having developed a keen interest in sampling different ethnic cuisines and unusual flavors he will be traveling Manhattan to report on its rich diversity of foods every other Monday. James will also be pursuing this topic further in the new Culinary magazine, so make sure to check his article out then, too!
Peri Shapiro could probably live on desserts if given the option considering all the important food groups can be satisfied with a brownie sundae that has a cherry on top. Her favorite food is ice cream; but if we aren’t qualifying that as a real food, it is macaroni and cheese. Really though, anything with chocolate puts a smile on her face. She learned to bake using the easy bake oven she received for her 9th birthday and has just been moving up since then. Now, her specialties are brookies (brownies with a cookie layer on top), carrot cake, and chocolate soufflés (no more mixes where you just add water!). She enjoys trying new recipes and adding her own twists to them. She is excited to explore New York City’s best dessert spots this year to find some inspiration for her own baking!
Elyse couldn’t be happier as a Columbia College freshman, but the number one thing she misses while at school is, with apologies to her family and friends, her home kitchen. While she loves the dining halls on campus, she misses the carefully-prepared vegan meals she makes at home with her mother and sister, like roasted butternut squash or her favorite vegan chili. In search of the perfect balance between plant-based, creative, and delicious, Elyse is looking to New York City to explore some of the best fresh, whole foods this town has to offer. Look for her monthly series “Veg Out” to read her reviews of vegan restaurants to sample off campus.
Julia believes that behind every meal is a narrative, begging to be told. Hers begins with vegetable gardens and apple picking, kugel and fresh challah at the New Year, timeless literature – William’s Sonoma’s Essentials of Baking and The New Moosewood Cookbook, farmers markets on Saturdays mornings, and a passion for kneading both homemade doughs and earthy soil. We are willing to travel long distances to taste culinary specialties, and our food often travels just as far to get to us. Where does your food come from? As a first time Morningside Heights CSA farm shareholder and first time blogger, Julia invites you to join her in answering this and other questions, as she endeavors to cook wholesome and creative meals with seasonal harvest vegetables, delivered straight from a local farm.
Carmen is a lifelong vegetarian food-lover from Vancouver, Canada. Her favourite thing to do in the kitchen is to adapt meat-based favourites into vegetarian-friendly dinners. After leaving Barnard, she hopes to attend culinary school. Her favourite food is sushi, but she also has special fondness for traditional Canadian foods like tourtière and boxed Mac n’ Cheese. Carmen will be writing once a month in a series called “Bait and Switch” which will explore vegetarian versions of popular dishes.
Shaynah is a Junior in Columbia College, majoring in Political Science and concentrating in History. She is currently studying abroad at King’s College in London and simply cannot wait to share her experiences with all of the Culinary Society’s readers. Although she does not consider herself an AWESOME cook, she is always in the mood to taste the most AMAZING dishes. So, stay tuned for some mouthwatering posts from London and other European cities!
Hi there! I’m Jonah, a junior in Columbia College studying sociology and statistics. Coming from a background in the social sciences, I am especially interested in the social and cultural meanings of food and food culture. Also… I really like food. Whether it’s home-cooked and eaten around a table with family, eaten at a nice restaurant with good friends, or simply picked up during the course of a busy day, I believe all food deserves to be noticed, and more importantly, enjoyed. I look forward to sharing my gastronomic, cultural, and culinary adventures in Scandinavia with you!
Natalie is a freshman in Columbia College. A self-professed caffeine addict, she loves scouring the city for the latest and greatest lattes. When not out and about, she enjoying baking – she has a penchant for crazy cupcakes, often featuring candied bacon – and is spending more time cooking in order to recreate the Tex-Mex flavors she desperately misses. This spring, Natalie will write a biweekly column entitled ‘Midnight Munchies,’ which will offer various ways to satisfy late-night cravings.
Coming from a family that splurges exclusively on good food and travel, Grace has grown up with a global palate for all things fresh, fun, and exotic. In recent years, she has taken to heart her grandmother’s mantra that “good food is cheaper than medicine” and enjoys cooking with fresh and wholesome ingredients that not only taste good, but are good for you. As a freshman in Columbia College, Grace is turning her culinary focus towards Columbia’s dining halls, discovering new ways to eat well and be creative within the constraints of the mandatory freshman mealplan. Look for her series “Mealplan Miracles,” to be appearing every other Monday with creative ways to be healthy and resourceful with ingredients at John Jay and Ferris.
Courtney is a freshman attending Columbia College who plans to study political science and human rights. She has always enjoyed cooking because she has found that cooking has become her form of meditation when times get stressful. Besides “stress-cooking”, she enjoys the wonderful color schemes, and memories that good plate of food can bring about. Her interest in making dishes that elicit or remind one of certain memories and images powers her desire to delve into baking. Besides fiddling in the kitchen, she enjoys walking throughout the city, stocking up on some good food at farmer’s markets, and once in a while, chancing upon a hole-in-the-wall restaurant.
Dawn is a junior and a psychology major. She has always loved food and cooking, but since moving to NYC, her culinary passions have taken a new path. Her current interest is trying as many different types food as she can during her time in the city, especially things that were never available in her hometown in North Carolina. In order to accomplish this goal, she made a list of restaurants, bakeries and cafes to try out which she is currently trying to tackle. In addition to going out and trying new things, she also loves to experiment in the kitchen. With a new found love of spicy things, she has recently made some fiery vegetarian chili and shrimp and beans in a tomato sauce that both turned out very well. For Dawn, cooking is a way to de-stress from school and bond with her friends. While picking just one food as her favorite is nearly impossible, she recently had pizza at Grimaldi’s in Brooklyn, which she says was absolutely fantastic!
Matthew is a freshman intending to study chemistry in Columbia College. When he is not laboring away in the lab, Matthew has an unhealthy obsession with food that has managed to earn him the nickname “Snorlax” among his friends. Though his cooking skills currently still leave much to be desired (read: they are nonexistent), he likes to spend his free time looking out for new places to eat and taking pretty pictures of food with his iPhone. Look out for his monthly series “Of Noodles and Dumplings” to read his reviews of dumpling shops and dim sum restaurants in New York.
Yvonne is a Columbia College freshman studying Politics and Physics. She joined the Culinary Society because food is central in her life; growing up in Taipei and Shanghai, Yvonne has been taught the importance of cooking and baking in regards to social and cultural identity. As a synesthete with a picky palette, she loves vivid flavors and interesting textures. Writing restaurant reviews for the Columbia Spectator allows her to express her gastronomical appreciation for external sources, but What the Gourmet Ate is a series dedicated to her creations, and a tongue-in-cheek defense of being a food snob in a college setting. Her recent favorite food would be one of her own invention: the Russian green vodka-soaked baba, a spin on the traditional Polish dessert. Yvonne will be attending culinary school (cuisine and patisserie) at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris over the summer, and will be a member of Metta House starting next fall.
Elizabeth is, a sophomore, is an oil-free vegan and wants to prove that eating healthy and eating great do not have to be mutually exclusive. Her favorite things to make are dessert and french toast out of old baguettes.
Today Merritt Duncan’s favorite food is macaroni and cheese. Tomorrow it might be biscuits and gravy, and the day after that maybe just blueberries. She can’t decide. Merritt uses her years of professional kitchen experience to write the a new series (with videos!) which will soon have a really cool name (it’ll be a surprise!) in which she examines and explains a cooking fundamental for those beginners among us.
David is excited to be starting his first semester at GS. Originally from Long Island, New York, his love affair with food and drink is deeply rooted in both family influences and his adventurous spirit. A veteran of both the United States Marine Corps and the bar and restaurant industry, he will be writing Positive Spirits, a column exploring how alcohol can enhance your dining experience.
