Min Liao, M.A. Food Studies (continued)

...Since she was a serious ballet student throughout junior high and high school, Min was, in effect, hungry from 1989 to 1994. When she moved to New York City in 1994, she got a job in a restaurant, which is where she tasted a raw oyster, French camembert, and heirloom tomatoes for the first time. Soon thereafter, she ditched dance classes altogether and worked in restaurants full-time. She left New York City for another culinary destination—Seattle, Washington—in 1999, where she quite literally “ate for a living” as the food writer for The Stranger, a Seattle-area weekly newspaper. Works from her food column in The Stranger can be found in the anthologies Best Food Writing 2003 and Best Food Writing 2004 (Avalon Publishing Group). Min left the Pacific Northwest in 2003 to pursue her master’s degree in food studies from New York University’s Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health.

Min joined EAT FOOD in the spring of 2005, in the hopes of doing a lot more than just eating for a living. Her first few assignments with the

company included: baking a loaf of turtle-shaped bread for a Betty Crocker promotion; preparing over 300 Oscar Meyer hot dogs for a live talk-show segment; canvassing vending machines and restaurants for the New York City Department of Health’s “Eat Well At Work” program; and creating appropriate recipes for a nutrition-counseling client afflicted with chronic gastritis.

Today, she is primarily involved with EAT FOOD’s culinary ventures (recipe development, recipe testing, on-site events, food styling) and nutrition-education projects (curriculum development, cooks’ trainings, worksite wellness, private cooking classes).

Min lives in the St. George section of Staten Island, where she is currently on an active search for the best Italian butcher and meat shop in the borough. Her favorite Italian meats, in no particular order, are sopressata, pancetta, lomo, culatello, porchetta, and coppa. Any suggestions can be sent to mliao@eatfood.biz.