Biography

Katie Ayoub, a graduate of Northwestern University, is an award-winning writer who has been writing about professional foodservice since 2000. She grew up in Latin America, returning home to England each summer, and now lives just north of Toronto. Throughout her travels, she picked up a passion for food - adding more garlic to her aunt's gazpacho in the Canary Islands, standing in line for warm tortillas in Mexico City. And always cooking with her mother, from a spicy rogan josh curry to a Sunday roast with Yorkshire pudding. This childhood, filled with a love of food and a passion for observing other cultures, set her up for her career as a food writer and editor.

She started her career at Talcott Publishing as senior editor of Chef magazine, and within eight months was promoted to managing editor. While there, she helped launch Chef Educator Today, developing its editorial focus and graphic design.

Editing and writing for both books, she managed all aspects of the editorial operation, from ideation to publication. She wrote for every issue, quickly carving out a specialty for unique chef interviews and trend-reporting. She garnered her first award here, as Chef magazine won the ASBPE award for "Best Regular Department."

Katie also developed successful Chef advertorial campaigns for the Idaho Potato Commission and Maple Leaf Farms. Each campaign delivered a memorable soft-sell for the advertiser, while providing the readership with engaging copy. In 1999, she left Talcott to pursue a freelance career. She focused on writing for foodservice publications, including Chef, Chef Educator Today, Pizza Today and La Cocina Mexicana. Articles focus on ingredient trends, chef interviews, and exploration of dishes, providing operators with ideas and resources.

Katie began a thriving relationship with the American Culinary Federation in 2002. The company asked her to launch a brand-new magazine, looking to her for concept design, editorial direction and management. She became the editor-in-chief of Sizzle, the ACF quarterly for students of cookery. Now in its third year, it is the first ACF publication to garner multiple awards, including the 2005 Apex Award of Excellence and the 2006 Cordon d'Or award for "Best Culinary Magazine". Its strength comes from keeping the objective in the crosshairs providing culinary students with informative, approachable articles about their chosen industry. Katie drives editorial that looks at sustaining food trends, inspiring chefs and foodservice jobs of tomorrow.

She is also a contributing editor to ACF's magazine geared toward chefs, The National Culinary Review. She writes recipe-driven features, issue-focused news pieces and chef-inspired trend features. For her June, 2006 trends piece on offal, Katie won the Cordon d'Or award for "Best Culinary Article." She has also compiled the Federation's Skills for Culinarians cookbook for the last two years, a project that links her with premiere chefs nationwide.

In January 2005, Katie was named senior writer for the Kraft Culinary Center. She generates Web site content for both its .com and .ca Web sites, as well as contributes editorial content and consults on layout design.

Katie also works with ad agencies, wordsmithing press releases and bios, adding substance and style while keeping the message on target. For references, please contact Brent T. Frei, who served as Katie's editor in chief at Chef magazine and publisher at Sizzle. He can be reached at 847/882-5499. Or contact Jeremy White, editor-in-chief of Pizza Today.