Bonny Wolf
NPR commentator Bonny Wolf grew up in Minnesota and has worked as a reporter and editor at newspapers in New Jersey and Texas. She taught journalism at Texas A&M University where she encouraged her student, Lyle Lovett, to give up music and get a real job. Wolf gives better advice about cooking and eating, and contributes her monthly food essay to NPR's award-winning Weekend Edition Sunday. She is also a contributing editor to "Kitchen Window," NPR's Web-only, weekly food column.
Wolf 's commentaries are not just about what people eat, but why: for comfort, nurturance, and companionship; to mark the seasons and to celebrate important events; to connect with family and friends and with ancestors they never knew; and, of course, for love. In a Valentine's Day essay, for example, Wolf writes that nearly every food from artichoke to zucchini has been considered an aphrodisiac.
Wolf, whose Web site is www.bonnywolf.com, has been a newspaper food editor and writer, restaurant critic, and food newsletter publisher, and served as chief speechwriter to Secretaries of Agriculture Mike Espy and Dan Glickman.
Bonny Wolf's book of food essays, Talking with My Mouth Full, will be published in November by St. Martin's Press. She lives, writes, eats and cooks in Washington, D.C.
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The Italian dessert wine has gone from relative obscurity to the toast of the town. Moscato is the fastest growing varietal wine in the country. Hip-hop artists sing about it. Jugs of Barefoot moscato are sold at BJ's Wholesale Club. It's on the menu at Olive Garden. What's up with that?
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The word on the 2012 food scene is the opposite of processed, mass produced and factory farmed. Weekend Edition food commentator Bonny Wolf sifts through the tea leaves for clues to what you'll be eating in the year ahead.
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Lots of creepy crawly things will appear on doorsteps and fence posts for Halloween, but will they be on your dinner plate? Insects are being proposed as a cheap and environmentally friendly food source. Long accepted around the world, eating bugs is considered, well, gross to many in North America and Europe.
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During the harvest season, farms across the country are inviting their neighbors to an elegant multicourse meal with the farmers at the food's source.
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Beneath their homely exteriors, celery root, Jerusalem artichokes, jicama and other tubers and roots have a lot to offer — adding flavor, color and texture to the winter pot. And now these gnarly undergrounders are starting to step into the limelight.
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Millions of chicken wings will be eaten at Super Bowl parties across the country Sunday, and a lot of them will get their kick from the rising star of condiments.
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If you've had enough of the seemingly ubiquitous butternut squash soup, have no fear. Butternut and acorn squash are making way for varieties like kabocha and jarrahdale. Yes, squash is the latest "it" fruit, so it's time to go beyond butternut.
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The delicate, delectable eggs and egg sacs from many kinds of fish are a seasonal treat worth trying, even for the uninitiated. So, food writer Bonny Wolf suggests, don't balk when your fishmonger asks if you want to keep the roe.
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It was inevitable that interest in local, sustainable, ethical eating would lead back to hunting. Weekend Edition food commentator Bonny Wolf shares her experience attending a wild-game-friendly dinner party.
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Cooking with sorrel, a deceptively bland-looking green that bursts with lemony tartness, offers depth and a surprise flavor with almost no effort. It is spring's little gift to the cook.
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Purple-black, sweet-tart Italian prune plums are far easier to cook with than their summer cousins, making them a favorite for desserts as well as savory dishes. But better act fast — the season is short, and it's already upon us.
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Paella prepared on a kettle grill and served with a glass of cool sangria made for a magical party for food writer Bonny Wolf. But first she gathered a few tips on the proper equipment and ingredients for this traditional Spanish meal.