Food & Lifestyle Book Collaborations * Recipe Development * Print Journalism * Content Creation
Instagram: Jenn.Garbee
Twenty years of experience in food and lifestyle journalism, creative storytelling and recipe development, professional recipe testing, writing, food styling, and project management, including custom publishing and expansive, multi-year brand development projects. Extensive experience working with cookbook authors (chefs, celebrities, influencers, and brands) to develop original content and recipes in the author’s voice and for a targeted audience. Proposal and concept development, book collaborations (writing, editing, “fixing”), professional recipe testing and recipe development, as well as project management, including photo shoots.
The Reality: I love uncovering and sharing the stories behind incredible people. Those stories are often told through food and recipes, from mom-and-pop shops to great chefs (including illicit ones, which led to my first book, Secret Suppers), but I’ve also been charmed by a Santa Monica Pier street performer, the new generation of old-time musicians, and LA’s underground clown network. I’ve made that connection with people in many ways over my career, from my work as a newspaper journalist and writer for many magazines, pivoting into corporate creative content development (custom magazines and feature-length books on beer, cheese, and other delicious topics), and now, collaborating with incredible authors on their story-driven lifestyle and cookbooks.
I took the slow path to get here. I eventually gave up an established, socially acceptable “dream” career in fine art museums after secretly (gasp!) studying for a baking and pastry degree at Le Cordon Bleu. (Also not quite like the romanticized version. You’re essentially competing in multiple Great British Bake Off “technical challenges” on a daily basis, only with a 7 a.m. call time, demerits for tardiness, too much chatter, or a messy work station, and the final products are presented nine hours later to judges who are completely devoid of humor.) A late night stage at Lucques under the great chef Suzanne Goin followed (also sub rosa, there was that museum day job to keep), then another internship, this time at the LA Times in the Food section, both in Test Kitchen and as an editorial assistant. (A big thank you to the great food historian Charles Perry for the encouragement to throw my name in that massive raffle.) I was lucky enough to be asked to stay at the paper afterwards and over the years, worked as a reporter in the Food, Calendar (arts/music), and Travel sections, as well as for the LA Times Magazine, covering chefs and farmers, old-school “artisan” food businesses, food history, craft brewing, and the occasional celebrity chef. (A few old reporting favorites are here.) I also wrote my own cooking and baking columns and covered the latest cookbooks for the newspaper — which led to the honor of being a James Beard Awards Cookbook Judge for several years. (The first year those massive boxes of books were delivered, Jerry, our UPS delivery driver, said, “What in the world did you order?!”) It was a time when you got to wear every hat in the newspaper world, and I took that to heart, circling back to the Times’ Test Kitchen on and off to fine tune chef recipes for print, working on the editorial side, and shifting back to reporting. That newspaper education (and it was a true education) led to many years as a magazine (Cooking Light, Los Angeles Magazine, Robb Report, Bon Appetit, Epicurious) and newspaper columnist/recipe developer for other papers (Tribune wire, LA Weekly, et al). To all of the incredible people I have worked with, from editors to reporters, test kitchen colleagues, food stylists, and every single person whose story I have had the pleasure of digging into and telling: Thank you. It has been a privilege.
Still reading? (Probably not!) I put that same dedication and enthusiasm into all of my book collaborations, from the words on the page to the recipes that inspire us to cook. There’s got to be a good story to tell, or it’s not worth the adventure.
Contact: jgarbee@gmail.com
