About

ANNE BRAMLEY is a food scholar, university lecturer, writer, cook, and podcast host. She was born in a Midwestern blizzard has thrived on all the best things cold weather provides, from her grandmother's "snow ice cream" to deep-winter snowshoeing. But she has also traveled the world, living in England, Germany, and United States and learning from each new food culture she encounters.

At 15 Anne took out her first subscription to Bon Appetit and then started a small baking business out of her mother's house, selling all manner of chocolate creations to satisfied customers. (The desserts are gone but the 20 years of magazines still fill her shelves.) Leaving for college at the University of Chicago, she immersed herself in a life of the mind but also awakened to all the diverse tastes that Chicago as a city had to offer from Mexican chorizo to Korean pa jun. While studying abroad at the University of Cambridge, she learned not only how to shop for local, fresh foods in season at the town's open market but also to appreciate the amazing flavors of a much disparaged cuisine. "There is perfection," says Anne, "in everything from a good pint of English cider to a take-away curry. In fact, there's even some romance to be found in haggis at a Burns' night supper." While in Europe, she spent winter break traveling to every corner of the continent to taste and learn everything she could about Europe's great culinary traditions: roast Christmas goose in Prague, fondue in the Swiss alps, frites in Brussels, hand-crafted chocolates in Paris, and all the delicious sweets at Christkindl markets across Germany and Austria. A few years later, she returned to Chicago to began work on her PhD and her dissertation "Eating Disorder: Food and Class in Early Modern England" for which she was awarded several research grants, including one from the Jane Grigson Trust that supports interesting culinary scholarship around the globe.

Melding her food interests and expertise with the latest technology, she created one of the first food podcasts, Eat Feed, which was voted Podcast of the Year in 2005 by the Portable Media Expo and named one of the top podcasts of 2005 by Slate. Culinary personalities from barbecue guru Steven Raichlen to food scientist Harold McGee have lauded the intelligence of the show. Saveur magazine, which listed Eat Feed among the Saveur 100 in 2007, raves that it's "the finest way to take your food on the road." Chicago magazine calls Bramley “a benevolent food snob” and the Chattanooga indie, Pulse, says she “offers food porn for the intellectual cook.” Other listeners have called it “the very best food podcast you'll come across,” as well as “smart and informative,” “brilliant,” “thoughtful,” and “authentic.” The World on a Plate blog sums it up best: “This show rocks.”

Alongside her food scholarship and the Eat Feed podcast, Anne delves into a variety of food topics from the history of marzipan to great summer grilling in online articles and in the wonderfully traditional medium of print. Her first book, Eat Feed Autumn Winter: 30 Ways to Celebrate When the Mercury Drops, will be published by Stewart, Tabori, and Chang in autumn 2008.

Day-to-day she shares space and life with 2 cats who have a terrible habit of sneaking butter from the mixing bowl, 2 dogs who beg for potato peels and carrot trimmings, and her husband Daniel and daugher Oona with whom she relishes sitting down to dinner each night.