* The Team
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The Thrifty gourmet team is comprised of NYC foodies who love to eat, cook and experience life through gastronomy.
Raissa Nebie – Founder
A native of Paris who has lived in Cote D’Ivoire for most of her life, Raissa loves to eat, cook and drink all things French-African. She’s an intrepid eater who approaches food with a fearless palate. From sheep intestines to agouti, alligator, crickets, gazelle and caterpillars, there is nothing she won’t try at least once. Well, except dogs and cats. Raissa’s love for gastronomy is rooted in the belief that food is a universal language understood by all; thus she tries to learn about the world and various cultures through her gastronomical travels. When she’s not writing or cooking for The Thrifty Gourmet, she’s usually riding her bicycle, watching people in union square, trying new restaurants or making new foodie friends. She also writes an anonymous blog about funny Internet dating disasters, but you’ll have to find that one on your own.
Rachel Crawford – Contributor
Rachel has been a food-lover all her life, growing up on PBS cooking shows like Yan Can Cook and Jacques Pepin. She learned how to cook from her parents, and from absorbing as much information as possible from reading, watching, eating, and getting her hands dirty in the kitchen. She was raised a vegetarian, and although she eats more like an omnivore these days, she still thinks it’s important for people to recognize the variety and deliciousness possible in vegetarian cuisine, especially since meat production is such a hot topic in the environmental and ethical food movements. Her favorite thing to do is cook and eat with the people she loves, and she maintains a personal cooking blog at sharingfood.wordpress.com.
Diane Erwin – Contributor
Diane is a carnivore who doesn’t like cooking with meat. That means she specializes in vegetarian dishes and desserts of all kinds– but the more chocolate, the better. She likes cupcakes, flaky pie crusts and eating breakfast for supper. She dislikes coffee, tiramisu and recipes with more than five or six steps. Diane writes about surviving, thriving and eating in New York City at Pay a Visit and discusses frugal living at Thrifty Under Fifty.
Jamie Grafton - Contributor and Wine Specialist
Jamie Grafton is an Englishman who has spent the last 15 years roaming around the world of wine. He’s worked with Michelin-starred restaurants, kept a few decadent London nightspots supplied with Champagne, done years of hard labour at the coalface of London wine retail, hosted hundreds of tastings, and managed to persuade employers he should be paid to have long lunches will visiting European vineyards. Nowadays he runs www.theswigger.com. He worships the Tanqueray distillery and will eat more or less anything smothered in Colman’s English Mustard.
Kathryn McGowan – Contributor
Kathryn McGowan is a food journalist with a penchant for trolling historical cookbooks in search of thrifty gourmet tips from the the past, when throwing food away wasn’t an option and slow food was the only food. She’s studied food writing with Alan Richman at the International Culinary Center in New York, and is a member of the Culinary Historians of New York. Her writing is soon to be found in the online literary magazine, Fiction Writers Review where she’ll be writing the new “Food and Fiction” column.
Erin Patinkin – Contributor
Erin’s first foray into the culinary world was as a student in a baking class at the age of six. Her life-long obsession with food has led her to stints managing restaurants, serving up food at local hot spots, selling pastries, and creating custom wedding cakes. Though a baker at heart, Erin loves to experiment with and to make savory meals from the local and seasonal ingredients that she procures from farmers markets and her rooftop garden. She is also the founder of NYCookery, a blog about what’s cooking in the home kitchens of New York.
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Tasty Links
- 101 Cookbooks
- Bitten Blog
- BrokeAss Gourmet
- David Leibovitz
- Eater
- Fork in The Road
- Grub Street
- La Tartine Gourmande
- Le Petrin (in French)
- Mouthing Off
- NYT Dining
- Pink of Perfection
- Ruhlman
- Sharing Food – Rachel's Blog
- Simply Recipes
- Smitten Kitchen
- TasteSpotting
- The Feedbag
- The Steamy Kitchen
- The Swigger – Jamie's Website
- Thrifty Under Fifty – Diane's Blog
- Vegan Yum Yum