Jenn Garbee is a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times' Food, Calendar, Home and Travel sections. She has written more than fifty feature stories on family-run food businesses, craft beer and spirits industry trends, culinary history, home design, cooking and baking techniques, cookbook reviews, arts and culture, as well as beer, wine and fine arts related travel. The connection between these disparate topics? The people who make each story unique. A slice of pie is only as tasty as the crumbs about the baker who made it (OK, that double crust apple number is darn good on its own, but it's even better when you know Prudence Penny, prudent penny-saver that she was, had her hand in the mixing bowl).

Additionally, Jenn is a weekly contributor to LA Weekly where she reports on wine, beer and cookbook industry trends and profiles LA chefs and pastry chefs (for recent stories, search for "Jenn Garbee" on Squid Ink). She is the beverage columnist for Tribune Media's national newspaper wire and writes about local food and drink for EAT: Los Angeles  (she is a contributing editor to the EAT Los Angeles 2008 & 2010 print editions, Prospect Park Books). Her stories have appeared on Epicurious and LifeScript, as well as in the Chicago Tribune, Fort Worth Star Telegram, Florida Sun-Sentinel, Pittsburgh Tribune, Robb Report, San Francisco Chronicle, St. Louis Today and dozens of additional newspapers. Jenn sidelines as a professional recipe tester for the Los Angeles Times and procrastinates quite efficiently by tweeting @EatHistory. Her most recent book, Secret Suppers (2008, Sasquatch Books), reports on the people behind the underground restaurant movement nationwide. She is currently ghost writing Anne Willan's memoir, and when the occasional Saturday permits (right?), researching a book exploring the role of women in history of brewing.

Jenn discovered the power of home cooking in fifth grade show-and-tell when she offered a classmate raised on Duncan Hines her homemade brownies in exchange for his pet turtle (she took home the turtle). After working her way through various museums, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim, New Museum of Contemporary Art, J. Paul Getty and UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, the creative thrill disappeared  (earning a decidedly practical MBA probably had something to do with it). She received a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Davidson College, Masters in Business with an emphasis in Non-Profit Management from the University of Texas at Austin, and a Diplôme in Le Cordon Bleu Pâtisserie and Baking from the California School of Culinary Arts. After culinary school, Jenn completed her pastry apprenticeship at Lucques, interned in the Los Angeles Times Test Kitchen and worked as an editorial contractor for the newspaper's Food section.

Contact Jenn at jgarbee@gmail.com. For book collaboration inquiries, please contact Angela Rinaldi at The Angela Rinaldi Literary Agency in Beverly Hills.

Postscript: Little Red, the red-eared slider turtle, was returned to Fort Worth's Trinity River five years later with a full belly and a penchant for 70% cocoa crickets.