I have news… Big news… Exciting news…
The talented Linda Avery is joining me here at Pen & Fork to pen cookbook reviews.
You’ll be excited, too, once you meet her and read her clever, insightful reviews.
You see, Linda loves cookbooks. She reads them like novels. She tests recipes to see if they work.
And then she smartly summarizes her thoughts into compelling, readable reviews so that you can decide if it’s a book for you.
Linda’s first career was at Leo Burnett Worldwide, an advertising agency where she had global responsibilities as Senior Vice President in the area of compensation and benefits. After 25 years she left to pursue other interests. Food is one of her many interests. When Linda decides to follow her heart, she follows with abandon.
She signed on as a recipe tester for the renowned Leites’s Culinaria site, and within months she was promoted to tester coordinator, in charge of all Leite’s Culinaria recipe testers.
Not long after that, she bit off even more responsibility and was named food editor of the site.
The synergy between Linda and David Leite kicked off a series of innovations for the site, including the LC store, the extremely popular cookbook giveaways, and the “Best 20 of”, the annual listing of the best books of the year.
As a result, the 2007 James Beard Award for Web Site Focusing on Food, Beverage, Restaurant, or Nutrition and the 2006 James Beard Award for Best Food Web Site, were awarded to both Linda and David.
Always looking for a new project, Linda co-chaired the 2007 IACP conference Host City event in Chicago; the 2008 Dine Around evening for the American Cheese Society conference; and emceed a fund raising event for narrative food writers (The Greenbrier).
She is a board member of Les Dames d’Escoffier Chicago Chapter and is co-chairing their 2010 fundraiser Fashion Plates.
Linda has reviewed countless cookbooks, and I can’t even begin to tell you how happy I am that she’ll be reviewing cookbooks for Pen & Fork.
Not only is she a talented writer, she’s a trusted friend and colleague. I’ve known Linda a long time and her passion for food and her love of cookbooks is genuine.
Please welcome Linda and watch for her first cookbook review for Pen & Fork this coming Sunday.
Teresa | MARCH 12, 2010
How exciting……Welcome Linda! Looking forward to your reviews. I love cookbooks too, so it will be interesting to read your side of the books and recipes…….
As always, Gwen, I love your blog! You are so fun to follow….lots of energy! Articles are well written and the pictures are awesome…….great job!
Best of luck!
Teresa
Vinifera Imports AZ | MARCH 13, 2010
Wow Gwen! That’s great. Look forward to Linda’s reviews.
Debbie J. Elder
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