About

Welcome to my culinary oasis, taetopia!

I was born and raised in New York City by a food-loving family of writers and editors. I attended The Institute of Culinary Education (formerly Peter Kump’s New York Cooking School), while working as the school’s project manager, earning a diploma in Culinary Arts and Culinary Management.

I moved part-time to New Jersey in the late ’90s, and discovered a thriving community of independent farmers and chefs who were passionate about great ingredients.

It is my pleasure to merge my passions, writing and food, by creating this blog. I’ll be sharing recipes from my favorite cookbooks, posts about friendly farms, reviews of good restaurants I’ve found, and some weeknight recipes to help inspire and motivate us to get food on the table.

Restaurant Reviews:

Restaurant reviews on my blog are places I’d recommend. I’ve been to plenty of places that I wouldn’t recommend, but feel no need to call them out. I may have been there on an off day, or perhaps what they serve is not suited to my taste. I also spent years writing reviews as a secret shopper for a restaurant consultant in New York, which made me a particularly picky customer. I generally save my snarky remarks for Yelp.

Unless otherwise noted, to the best of my knowledge, while dining, the restaurant staff is unaware that I am a blogger and will be posting a review to this site, and I have not received any item for free. Although I may not frequent the restaurant several times, with different groups of people, under an assumed name, wearing a disguise, and dashing off to the bathroom to take notes, I do try to sample several dishes and visit at least twice before posting any opinions.

Product Reviews:

Unless specifically mentioned in a post, I have not received any product for free, or been paid to promote or test a product.  This includes cookbook reviews.

Should a vendor, publisher, or author wish to contact me to test a product and blog about it, I am perfectly willing and eager to do so, with the understanding that any such agreement will be posted on this blog.

Contact Me:

Feel free to contact me with any thoughts or suggestions. I will reply to any courteous emails as soon as possible.

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