Founder of FiveMoreMinutesWith.com
Every now and then, a girl has to reinvent herself. Witness Madonna. Or Whitney Houston. And yes, even Oprah.
Five More Minutes With is my springboard from best-selling cookbook author and award-winning food and wine columnist to editor of a unique new Web site that celebrates our departed loved ones and the important part they played, and continue to play, in our lives.
Five More Minutes With allows me to open up a meaningful and comforting dialogue with like-minded people from around the world, while sticking close to my main calling and passions in life: writing and publishing.
Based in Seattle, Washington, I am the author of seven books, including Pacific Northwest Wining & Dining: The People, Places, Food, and Drink of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and British Columbia (Wiley, 2007); the Pike Place Public Market Seafood Cookbook (Ten Speed Press, 2005); and the Pike Place Market Cookbook (Sasquatch Books, 2003).
I am a regular contributor to the Taste column of Pacific Northwest, The Seattle Times Sunday magazine. Since 2000, my food-and-wine-pairing column has been published quarterly in Wine Press Northwest magazine, and I contribute a monthly beverage-related post to Amazon.com’s Al Dente blog.
I love television! You may have seen me on the Travel Channel (“Destination USA: Secrets of Seattle”), Food Network (“Dining on the Train: the American Orient Express”), Discovery Channel (“Home Matters”), QVC (“Pacific Northwest Specialty Foods Show”), KCTS, Seattle’s Public Television Affiliate (“S is for Seafood” and KCTS Cooks: Northwest Favorites), and Evening Magazine (“Seattle’s Best Desserts”).
Through the years, I’ve been honored to chat with National Public Radio host Liane Hansen on “Weekend Edition Sunday;” Susan Stamberg on National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition;” Tom Douglas and Thierry Rautureau, hosts of “Tom Douglas’ Seattle Kitchen;” and various hosts on Martha Stewart’s Sirius Radio programs.
Pro bono work is one of my other passions. During 2010, I am serving as Vice President and Program Chair of Les Dames, Seattle, and will automatically become president of the group in 2011. Les Dames d’Escoffier International (LDEI) is an invitational organization of women leaders in food, beverage, and hospitality whose mission is education, advocacy, and philanthropy. Presently, there are 27 chapters and 1,500 members in the U.S.A. and Canada.
I also belong to the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP), Women Chefs and Restaurateurs (WCR), the Portland Culinary Alliance (PCA), and Phi Beta Kappa, and serve as a judge for the James Beard Foundation annual awards.
I was honored to receive the 2009 Terlato Family Vineyards Fellowship to the Symposium for Professional Wine Writers at Meadowood Napa Valley, as well as a merit scholarship to the Symposium for Professional Food Writers at The Greenbrier in 1998. I am the only writer ever to have won awards from both symposia.
For the past 28 years, I have been happily married to Spencer Johnson—architect, photographer, musician, lover, and all-around Renaissance man. For the past 20 years, we’ve lived in Seattle, in the same condominium building we first settled in as newcomers to the city, a salmon toss from Seattle’s iconic Pike Place Market.
