Kelly Snowden

Title: Former Assistant Editor

At Food & Wine: 2006-2011

Born and Raised: Los Angeles

Education: Duke University, where I learned barbecue isn’t just stuff cooked on a grill. 

How I Fell for Food: It’s in my genes. My great-grandmother on my mother’s side made pies for a living in West Virginia, and my dad’s side of the family has been growing grapes in Napa for a few generations.

Guilty Pleasure: Chicken fingers. I know it’s wrong – chickens don’t have fingers – but I adore the crispiness of them.

Kitchen Nightmares: I lived in rural Japan for a year with no central heat, so I actually had to boil water to thaw olive oil when I wanted to cook during the winter. I also had no oven, so I taught myself to make cakes and casseroles in a rice cooker.    

Lesson I’ll Never Learn: No matter how many times I do it, when I make cookie dough, I will eat so much of it that I’ll make myself sick and think “never again.”