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 Wendy Wasserman
Publisher
Edible Iowa River Valley
A recent arrival to Iowa City, Wendy Wasserman brings
her culinary curiosity, her background in food marketing
and public policy, and her enthusiasm for all things tasty
with her. She most immediately moved to Iowa from Tokyo,
Japan, where she was a senior consultant for www.myfood.jp,
a new website venture showcasing American food culture
to Japanese consumers and media. Before living in Japan,
Wendy was on the marketing team for Whole Foods Market
in Washington, DC, and was the Marketing Associate for
one of the company's top ten stores. However, Wendy's
career has been as varied as the day is long - she was
a Capitol Hill staffer, federal lobbyist, and a program
manager for the Smithsonian Institution. She also had
a stint as a Bed and Breakfast Manager for a historic
inn in Hawaii, a ranger for the National Park Service,
and had been a published travel book writer, having authored
Fodor's first book specifically devoted to Belgium
and Luxembourg. She has also been published in Time
Out, The Tokyo Weekender and American Studies
Quarterly. She holds a Masters in American Studies,
with a specific focus on cultural tourism and marketing.
Although
she has lived in Tokyo, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, New
York and Hawaii, and her passport now requires extra pages
from all her international travel, she finds Iowa in some
respects one of the most mysterious places she has have
ever resided. She knows the territory is full of culinary
surprises and delicious stories and is excited to discover
them for the readers of Edible Iowa River Valley.
 Chef Kurt Michael Friese
Editor-in-Chief
Edible Iowa River Valley
Born and raised in the Heartland, Chef Kurt Michael Friese
got his BA in photography at Coe College in Cedar Rapids,
Iowa before graduating from the New England Culinary Institute,
where he later was a Chef-Instructor. With more than 25
years of professional foodservice experience, he has been
Chef and owner, with his wife Kim McWane Friese, of the
Iowa City restaurant Devotay for 10 years. Devotay is
a community leader in sustainable cuisine and supporting
local farmers and food artisans. Recently Kim promoted
him to "Chef Emeritus," and he now devotes most
of his time to writing about and advocating for sustainable
cuisine.
Friese is also the founding leader of Slow Food Iowa City,
which created and maintains the 12,000 square-foot garden
and orchard at Elizabeth Tate High School. He serves on
the Slow Food USA National Board of Governors representing
the Midwest Region. His columns and photos on food, wine
and travel have appeared regularly in local, regional
and national newspapers and magazines. His forthcoming
book, Slow Food in the Heartland: A Cook's Tour is will
be published by UI Press in the spring of 2007.
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