Bios
Cate O’Malley (Editor) - Bio
Write articles about sugary treats? No arm twisting needed here, I’m happy to make the sacrifice. In addition to writing for the various Well Fed sites, I combined my cookbook obsession and my love for the written word to form my own site, Sweetnicks. My site’s name comes from my 5-year-old son, Nicholas, who loves to help me in the kitchen almost as much as he loves Dora, Spiderman and his girlfriend.
Chris Arpante - Bio
Chris Arpante is a middle school administrator in metro Atlanta, Georgia. While she truly enjoys trying to make a different with her at-risk teens, her blog, Mele Cotte, is a way to bring out her love for food. As she continues on her personal culinary journey, she would welcome the chance to leave my public education heels in the main office and slip into a pair a Dansko clogs behind her own bakery display case. But, until then she will continue with her blogging, expanding her experiences on Sugar Savvy, Kids Cuisine, and Well Fed On the Town.Chris’ two loves are baking and candy. A self-diagnosed candy-a-holic, there is always some in her reach. Students love stopping her office to say hello and a piece of Willy Wonka’s wonderful brilliant confections.Chris’ two loves are baking and candy. A self-diagnosed candy-a-holic, there is always some in her reach. Students love stopping her office to say hello and a piece of wonderful brilliant confections.
Sarah Caron - Bio
Most people can’t say what they would be doing as an occupation when they were 4 or 5 or even 15. But I am not most people. I don’t remember a time when I didn’t want to be a writer. And although a number of people attempted to talk me out of pursuing writing as a career for a more traditional route, I was unwavering in saying that one way or another I would be a writer.
I am a journalist, whose work has appeared in a variety of publications including the New York Times, Boston.com and the New Haven Register. In November 2005, I combined my writing career with my food obsession, creating a food blog, Cucina Bella. These days, my writing operates between two worlds: hard news reporting and foodisms. It’s a great place to be.
Carrie Havranek - Bio
Carrie Havranek lives in Easton, Pennsylvania, which forms a right triangle between New York and Philadelphia. She is intrigued by the way culture allows you to examine the intersection of people, food, travel, customs, music, writing, film, art, and so forth. In the past dozen years, she has written for a number of different outlets, from the Village Voice, Paste, and Salon to niche publications such as Beverage World and Destination Hyatt. For the past three years she has been a contributor to Frommers.com, where she writes the global price index column, and is currently finishing up a book for Greenwood Press about women in rock.
You can learn a lot about a people and a country by what they indulge in when no one is looking, and so she’s always picking up a new candy bar when she travels. In the meantime, she’s part of a three-woman baking club, whose only mission is to bake what they’re curious about; recent forays include bread pudding and empanadas. Stay tuned: There’s been talking about blogging it, so a link may come soon.
Ashley Hinderman - Bio
I have always known I wanted to be a writer, even when I was 5 or 6. I started out writing poems to my mom and just grew from there, loving English class and writing journals. I currently freelance and am finishing up getting my Bachelor’s degree in Journalism.
I have loved candy since I could taste food! My favorite has always been Nestle Crunch. I put M&M’s in everything, like ice cream, popcorn, everything I can think of! So when I got offered to write for Sugar Savvy, I was estactic! I’m about to celebrate my one year wedding anniversary and can’t wait to try our frozen peice of chocolate wedding cake, but hey it’s tradition!
Michael Kaye - Bio
Michael Kaye currently resides in the suburbs of Los Angeles and recently graduated from college with a degree in film production. With a passion for all things cinematic, Michael hopes to break into the industry as a film director or as a screenwriter. When he’s not scanning the trade papers, writing, working on pet projects, or searching for his own path into the film family, he enjoys exploring the city he loves from high to low for anything new and exciting.
If there is anything besides film that he still has room to love, it’s candy, which has always been a part of his life in one way or another. Some of his fondest memories are searching the house as a child for his Easter basket filled with chocolate rabbits and cream-filled eggs, or the great candy trades that would happen between friends after hauling in bags of Halloween goodies. Michael is growing increasingly fond of dark chocolate and peanut butter, has a deep nostalgia for simple vanilla, longs for anything crunchy, and absolutely abhors anything coconut.
Faith Kramer - Bio
Faith Kramer lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, but will always be a New Yorker at heart (at least until she loses the accent). She has eaten her way across England, France, Italy, Spain, Czech Republic, Austria and Vietnam, as well as the U.S. and Canada, and even now is plotting at least three more trips. While she takes copious advantage of the fresh fruit and vegetable bounty available in California, her personal food pyramid consists of dark chocolate, bittersweet chocolate, milk chocolate, French jam and soup. She can be found blogging her food at Blog Appetit.
Rosa Li - Bio
Rosa is a college student who regularly reaches for sweets to keep her awake during late night study sessions and tedious lectures. While her friends and roommates may prefer to spend their disposable income on beer, nights out, clothes, and shoes, Rosa finds that much of her paycheck goes towards the purchase of candy (though shoes are pretty great too).
Joanna Miller - Bio
Joanna Miller lives in Portland, Oregon, where she produces commercial photo shoots and engages in the majority of her sugar forays. The first (self-appointed) matter of business upon assignment of out-of-town shoots, however, is to research that city’s line-up of bakeries and chocolatiers.
As much as she LOVES sugar (everything from S.F.’s Recchiuti and Portland’s Sahagun to 7-11’s candy corn and Swedish fish), she understands that the best way to enjoy it is to enhance it with a detectable amount of salt. Always with her finger on the pulse, Joanna has been salting her dark chocolate and caramel (not to mention candy corn, cookies and cake) long before the fancy chocolate joints ever sprinkled their confections with hand-harvested fleur-de-sel from Brittany.
Sylvie Shirazi
I have a love affair with food. Learning about new and different foods is my passion, but my soft spot is most definitely for sweets. When I’m not creating or trying new recipes at home, I am on a hunt for the newest and best tasting candy, chocolate and other delicious treats, because I simply must know what everything tastes like! I currently live in Los Angeles, California which affords me a variety of opportunities to satisfy my culinary curiosity.Sandy Smith - Bio
Although I’ve been a full-time freelance writer and editor for almost fifteen years, I’ve been eating and cooking for quite a bit longer than that. I enjoy artisanal baking, and I work with publishers to develop and test recipes as a technical editor for cookbooks. I also write regularly on culinary and other topics for various print and online media. Here on the Well Fed Network, I write for Kids Cuisine, Just Baking, Paper Palate, Sugar Savvy, and Growers and Grocers. Elsewhere, I write the LocalFoodBlog.com, on local and sustainable foods.
I love every aspect of food—from growing herbs to grocery shopping (really!) to cooking, baking, and writing about obscure Colonial dishes and cave-aged farmhouse cheeses. I grew up in a home where the preparing and sharing of food was an expression of love, and the kitchen and dining rooms are still the “living rooms” in our family. I’m deeply grateful for the abundance of excellent food we have so readily available to us in the United States, so I try to be a good steward of that resource, and my husband and I are teaching our kids to do the same. At our family’s table, we eat as seasonally, and enjoyably, as possible.
Hannah Terry-Whyte - Bio
Hannah is an Australian moving into the final stretch of a year-long student exchange in the US who becomes periodically inconsolable at the thought of leaving American grocery and natural foods stores behind. She’s on a self-imposed restriction to eat only what she cannot find “Down Under,” and has decided to throw (economic) caution to the wind in an effort to try all the fancy (as well as standard) candy she can find. She wishes she had two stomachs, and is mildly surprised that she has neither had a heart attack nor become unable to fit through her dormroom door since arriving in the US. Currently a fan of Endangered Species chocolate, Vosges, Rice Dream non-dairy frozen dessert, and anything by Reese’s.”
Alicia Zar - Bio
Alicia Zar lives in the New Orleans area, where she is constantly on the prowl for things made with copious amounts of sugar. In fact, every one of Alicia’s teeth is a sweet tooth – with the exception of one savory molar.
In addition to writing for Sugar Savvy, Alicia keeps her own blog, The girl tastes!, which chronicles her sugar-laden tasting and baking adventures.
