The idea of writing a mini-bio before my/our 40th anniversary weirds me out, but Beth is powerful motivator, so, here goes. After college, I went to Cambridge where I got a graduate degree in history, met my husband-to-be Mark, and had a long-distance relationship (England-NYC) with him for 7 years, until he finally shacked up with me in NYC (we got married in 1995).
I have spent most of my working life in media, one way or another, as a writer or editor type person, first for SPY magazine, then Nickelodeon, where I launched Nickelodeon magazine. Shortly after Al Gore invented the internet, I went to work for CondéNast launching websites and then helped create Oxygen TV. All along I knew I wasn’t quite doing what brought me real joy and skedaddled off to the Institute of Culinary Education to get qualified as a chef, with the goal of becoming a food writer. It worked! I have covered food and restaurants for the New York Times, and written for lots of other publications along the way. I currently am the host of The Secret Life of Cookies podcast, where I talk to well-known people about politics and the news, all while baking; write a weekly Substack newsletter of the same name and, whee! Just published my first cookbook, all about chocolate chip cookies titled, yup, The Secret Life of Chocolate Chip Cookies. Oh yes, and I live in Montclair, which is close enough to Summit that I can still get Natale’s apple cider donuts when needed. Montclair is where Mark and I have raised our two kids: Cate who is 23, just graduated college and is working at pondering what exactly she should be doing with her life, and Oliver who is 19 and pondering what he should major in at NYU.  And yes, my husband’s last name is Bates and we do have a dog named Norman.