We are good friends, avid travelers and members of the Eat Boutique team. If you’d like to write or photograph for Eat Boutique, please view our contribute page.
Maggie Battista, is founder of Eat Boutique. She started the site in 2007 as a way to highlight and celebrate the best pure, local and comforting handmade foods, and now sells unique and delicious handmade food in monthly tasting subscriptions and seasonal gift boxes. Fostering vibrant real world communities around food, Maggie now hosts Eat Boutique’s Local Markets, where she spotlights cookbook authors and undiscovered food makers. Maggie is a community evangelist with more than 15 years of Web community building and outreach experience, connecting millions via sites like Lycos, Tripod and TripAdvisor. She’s written for Time Out New York, the former I.D. magazine and Hip Paris, and created retail experiences for the largest floral and event design company in New England. Maggie regularly visits Paris and travels far distances to speak at conferences and to find the next great chef, farmer, food maker or host. You can follow her worldwide – and homemade – gastronomic adventures on Twitter at @mizmaggieb or @eatboutique.
Jessica Merrill, writer, lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. and writes about food, drinks, travel and lots more. She has written for The New York Times, Travel & Leisure, National Geographic Travel, Budget Travel, Wine & Spirits, Shape, Coastal Living and many others. She grew up in Vermont, and is very much that person who is willing to walk not just a city block, but a mile (or two) in search of authenticity. On top of that, she’s lucky to have met Maggie through her husband. They’re really tight cousins – so it turns out husbands are good for lots of things!
Lise Pellegrin, photographer, designer, is a master floral designer and amazing photographer from a small village just outside Nice, France. She’s designed and photographed for some of the most design-forward boutiques and families around the world. She’s currently working and eating in Bermuda after months traveling around Asia, and texts Maggie after each delicious meal.
Shelby Larsson, writer, editor, resides in Boston, where she wanders across the city, eating and drinking as she goes. She loves New England (with a particular affinity for Maine), architecture, cities, beer, cheese, and adores cooking up a big meal for family and friends. You can read more about Shelby’s eating adventures on her blog, Lady Gouda.
Chloé and Dennis’, writers, passion for unique, local food and wine started years ago around a shared plate of churros in the south of Spain. Chloé followed Dennis to New York, Dennis caught up with her appreciation for wine and food and together they quickly started eating and drinking their way around the world and making amazing, passionate friends along the way. They recently lived in Europe and backpacked their way back across Asia and South America. Dennis and Chloé now live in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and are happily plotting their next move in the world of food, wine and travel. They share their wine experiences on Tag:Wine and on the more personal (and often written in French) chloe blogue.
Luke Poling is a writer and filmmaker living in Boston. His first feature film, a documentary called “Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself,” will premiere late 2011/early 2012. He’s on Twitter and on-line at www.plimptonmovie.com. He once ate a Double Down from KFC and almost instantly regretted it. Know a good book on a cook that he should read? Email him.
Jill Chen, photographer, graphic designer, and urban farmer, resides in Toronto, Canada with her chickens and mini pet pig named Henry. After running a design studio for twenty years, Jill gave it all up for a simpler way of living. When she’s not making food or photographing food, she’s growing food with the goal of being self-sustaining with year-round organic produce, despite the harsh Canadian winter. Charcuterie, wine-making, mushroom cultivation, aquaponics and shrimp farming are just a few of the projects on her plate right now. You can follow Jill’s blog, Freestyle Farm, for beautiful photos that will inspire you to cook or grow something.
Denise Woodward is a foodie who’s first thought each morning is about what she’ll be cooking that day. Laudalino is not a foodie; he’s an eater and aspiring home chef. They met when he was a starving climber and bachelor who longed for his mother’s good Portuguese cooking. She cooked, he ate and six years later, he still prefers her food to any restaurant fare. Follow their culinary capers in their 20-square-foot kitchen at their blog, Chez Us.
Heidi Murphy, wedding + lifestyle photographer, and aspiring foodie. Though her heart belongs to Martha’s Vineyard, she lives north of Boston with her husband and their three dogs in a charming seaside town. She has an affinity for simple flavors + simple pleasures, farmer’s markets, organic everything, s’mores, corn from the grill, and of course — champagne. Heidi’s work, on film, has been featured stateside and abroad; and her musings + imagery can be found on her blog – White Loft Style.
Lauren Keiper, writer and editor, lives in Boston with her husband, Eric. She’s written for Reuters, the Boston Globe, Boston Business Journal and Boston magazine. Lauren grew up in suburban Pennsylvania, but has been eating, cooking (oh and working) her way up the East Coast since, living in Washington DC, New York City and now Boston. Doughnuts are her favorite food group. While she’s waiting on the arrival of her first child (a girl!) Lauren is busy writing the What We’re Loving Friday posts and editing copy for Eat Boutique, taste testing small batch producers and working on mini-guides for EB readers.
