Big Traveling Potluck

Joe Yonan

The two-time James Beard Award-winning Food and Travel editor of The Washington Post, Joe Yonan is author of Serve Yourself: Nightly Adventures in Cooking for One, which Serious Eats called “a truly thoughtful, useful, and incredibly delicious book.” Before his 2006 move to Washington to edit the food section of The Washington Post (and write the monthly Cooking for One column and occasional feature), he was the food writer and Travel section editor at The Boston Globe.

His work from the Globe and Post has appeared in three editions of the “Best Food Writing” anthology. On leave from the Post, Joe spent 2012 in North Berwick, Maine, to learn about growing and homesteading from his sister and brother-in-law and to work on more book projects, including the upcoming Eat Your Vegetables: Fresh Recipes for the Single Cook (Ten Speed Press, August 2013).

Jeni Britton Bauer

Jeni Britton Bauer has honed her ice cream-making skills for more than 15 years and is the author of The New York Times best selling Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home. In its eighth printing, the cookbook dubbed the “homemade-ice cream-making Bible” by The Wall Street Journal recently earned Jeni a James Beard Award, America’s most coveted honor for those writing about food and the culinary arts.

Jeni opened Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams in 2002 in Columbus, Ohio’s North Market, and now her company operates nine shops in Ohio and one in Tennessee. Pints and ice cream sandwiches are also available at more than 400 American groceries, as well as through Jeni’s home-shipping business. From creating the ice cream flavors and descriptions of them, to packaging art and design, store environments, and service, Jeni and her team are responsible for the entire customer experience. Jeni’s ice creams have been praised by Time (“America’s best”), Cooking Light (“deadly delicious”), and Saveur (“revolutionary”), while Food & Wine stated, “No one makes ice cream like Jeni Britton Bauer.”

When Jeni isn’t developing new flavors or art directing new campaigns, she devotes time to Local Matters (the fresh-food-for-all non-profit she co-founded in Columbus), serves on the boards of the Wexner Center for the Arts and Columbus College of Art & Design, and gets into trouble with her husband and two children at their home in Columbus.

Ree Drummond

Ree Drummond hardly needs a bio. We all know The Pioneer Woman. She’s a No. 1 New York Times bestselling author with cookbooks, children’s books, and oh yes, her love story that had everyone swooning. She has a Food Network show and has been featured in Woman’s Day, People Magazine, Southern Living, and Ladies’ Home Journal, to name a few. She’s been listed as one of Forbes’ Top 25 Web Celebrities, and her blog was named one of the 25 best Blogs in the Word by Time Magazine.

Ree is also the wife of a cattle rancher (and she’s a mighty fine gate opener and closer, too) and mama to four lovely children, all of whom are homeschooled. She’s a dear friend to many bloggers and yes, she’s really coming to Big Traveling Potluck!

Matt Armendariz

Matt Armendariz.

Oh boy. Where do we begin? He’s been recognized by so many publications, including Martha Stewart Living, The New York Times, Bon Appetit, Saveur Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker … if we tried to list them all, we’d run out of space. His client list is equally impressive, including such brands as Food Network, Time Magazine, Food + Wine, Coca Cola, Whole Foods Market, Cooking Light, and Coastal Living. He’s done TV, radio, and if the Starship Enterprise had its own cable channel, we’re sure he’d be on it too.

Matt blogs at Matt Bites (named one of the 50 World’s Best Food Blogs by The Times Online), where he shares his obsession with food, drink, and everything else in between. Although Matt has been blogging for about 7 years, his experience in the food industry spans decades, from graphic design to art direction. He’s authored two books: a cookbook titled On A Stick!, and one on photography titled Focus on Food Photography for Bloggers, featuring tips and tricks for everyone. He conducts food photography workshops at schools, colleges, and conferences, and he participates in intern programs with Art Center in Pasadena and Long Beach Community College.

He has a big smile and a bigger heart. We’re so glad to have him at Big Traveling Potluck.

Joy Wilson

Joy Wilson is so well known as the blogger, Joy the Baker, that some people have incorrectly (if appropriately) believed her name to be Joy Baker. Her blog has been named the ‘Best Baking and Dessert Blog’ by Saveur and Foodbuzz and has been nominated for ‘Best Food Blog’ by the Bloggies and ‘Top Fifty Food Blogs in the World’ by the London Times. She has been featured in Sunset and Food & Wine Magazine.

She describes herself as self-taught / family taught / taste buds taught baker whose love for sweets began at an early age with her father, a fanatical pie baker, and her mother, a cake decorator. Her obsession was honed as a Ben and Jerry’s cake decorator, and professional (crack of dawn) baker in various bakeries in Los Angeles. Joy has made everything from biscuits to wedding cakes … but her favorite thing in the world is a tall stack of pancakes.



In her first cookbook Joy the Baker: 100 Simple and Comforting Recipes, Joy illustrates that muffins are best served warm, bread should be studded with chocolate, and even avocados can be made into cake. It’s a simple celebration of butter, sugar, and flour.



Joy also the co-founder of Homefries, a destination for fun, high-quality podcasts, covering food and wine, parenting, and simple living, and entertaining.

Brooke Burton-Lüttmann

While pursuing a screenwriting career and making a living in the restaurant business, Brooke Burton-Lüttmann went on a life-changing trip to Italy where she witnessed the bounty of a friend who had followed her passion as a baker. Standing in her friend’s kitchen she had a life-altering realization: this world famous baker built an empire and a beautiful life with just flour, water, and a lot of passion. It was then that Brooke saw the equation for a happy life:
 
Love + hard work + simple joy = success.


Brooke returned to the states resolute to change the course of her life by focusing her career on the things she really loved. Shortly thereafter, she started her literary food blog, Food Woolf (inspired by Virginia Woolf) and delved into the world of service and hospitality. She is now a Service Consultant in Los Angeles where she teaches hospitality, leadership skills, and assists businesses to create a clear vision and plan for success. Brooke has worked with award winning restaurants and chefs such as Nancy Silverton, Mario Batali, Suzanne Goin, Karen and Quinn Hatfield.


Since launching in 2007, Food Woolf has been nominated for best food writing by Food Buzz, best piece of literary writing by Saveur, and has written for Edible Los Angeles, LA Weekly, LAist, CIO Magazine, and other online publications and has been mentioned in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Guardian UK. Brooke is the co-author of ‘The Food Blog Code of Ethics’, which lead to a world-wide buzz about the need for the blogging community to be rigorously honest about sponsored posts, freebies, and restaurant reviews.