Melissa Rubel

Title: Senior Associate Recipe Developer

Years at Food & Wine: Four

Born and Raised: Los Angeles

Education: Boston University and California School of Culinary Arts in Pasadena.

What I Do at Food & Wine: I test all of the recipes for our annual Best of the Best cookbook, which includes making more than 400 dishes a year to find the ones we like best. I also do recipe testing and development for the magazine.

Favorite Cheap Eat: Dim sum. Especially fried sesame-seed balls filled with red bean paste (Jin Dui).

First Recipe I Ever Made by Myself: Peanut-butter balls made with peanut butter, sugar and evaporated milk, rolled and eaten raw. I was six years old.

Best Thing I've Ever Tasted: Warm, fresh-baked focaccia topped with fresh, oily, bright green pesto in Cinque Terre, Italy.