Short Version:

Gwen Ashley Walters is an award-winning food journalist, a professionally trained chef, a Certified Culinary Professional and author of three cookbooks. She writes about food for a number of print and digital publications.

Long version:

Born to journalist parents, it was only a matter of time before Gwen settled into a rewarding food writing career.

An honors graduate of the Scottsdale Culinary Institute, she honed her cooking skills in commercial kitchens such as the renowned Boulders Resort in Carefree, Arizona before trading her chef’s knife for a pen.

Author of three award-winning cookbooks featuring renowned U.S. resorts, she has taught cooking classes across the country and her recipes have been featured in numerous print and digital outlets.

A restaurant critic, columnist and features writer for PHOENIX Magazine for eight years, Gwen currently writes food features for Sun Valley Magazine and several digital outlets, including Thrillist.com.

She currently covers Scottsdale dining news for The Arizona Republic  and wrote anonymous restaurant critiques for them from 2006 to 2008. Her recipes and articles have appeared in national magazines such as Cooking Light and Sunset. She was a features writer for Edible PHOENIX for eight years. She has reported on the Phoenix dining scene for Eater.com, Epicurious.com and Grub Street. Gwen is also a contributing author to the cookbook Edible: A Celebration of Local Foods (2010).

Her blog, Pen & Fork has been recognized as the Best Food Blog in Phoenix twice by The Phoenix New Times. Gwen’s feature story “Saintly Stockers,” for PHOENIX Magazine won first place in the 2016 non-newspaper food feature category from The Association of Food Journalists, and 2nd place in the Arizona Press Club awards.

Gwen is an active member of the Association of Food Journalists (AFJ); the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP); and Les Dames d’Escoffier International (LDEI).

Pitching PEN & FORK:

From Gwen: “I’m an old-school journalist. It is against my ethics to accept invitations for free dinners, lunches, happy hours and such, if the public is not also invited to said event. However, I am interested in hearing about your new menus, events and promotions. I do go to new restaurants (and old restaurants) but I pay my own way. I know, it’s crazy! But my readers know that I do not write about something just because I got a free invite. So… hit me with your best news stuff. I’m all ears.

penforkpub at penandfork dot com.

Hiring Gwen as a freelance food writer:

Gwen takes food and travel writing assignments from a variety of publications. If you are interested in hiring her for your publication, email her at penforkpub at penandfork dot com.

Linda Avery is a James Beard award-winning former food editor. She is a member of Les Dames d’Escoffier International (LDEI), and splits her time between Chicago and Arizona. Linda has been writing cookbook reviews for Pen & Fork since 2010. Most cookbooks are provided gratis to Linda by publishers as review copies. We link to Pen & Fork’s affiliate account on Amazon on these posts.