John Kessler spent 18 years at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where he wrote about food and served as the newspaper’s dining critic. He graduated from Williams College, lived in Japan for two years and then, to the abject horror of his psychoanalyst father, attended L’Academie de Cuisine culinary school near Washington, D.C. He worked for several years as a restaurant cook and chef in Washington and Denver, where he got his start as a food writer at the alternative newsweekly, Westword. His writing has received many awards, including a National Headliner Award and a James Beard award. His essays, columns and food features have been anthologized 11 times in “Best Food Writing.” He served as chairman of the James Beard Foundation’s journalism awards committee. He is working (very slowly) on a book project with The Giving Kitchen—the beyond-expectation resource for restaurant workers employed in the Atlanta restaurant community facing unanticipated crisis. He currently lives and writes in Chicago.
