About
Our mission is to celebrate the sensual pleasures of food. We’ve outlined that premise in our mission statement, but in short, we travel the planet exploring culture, history and tradition via the plate to learn the passion behind the flavors that excite us. Our audio & video programs, recipes, articles and interviews showcase the best of what we’ve discovered in an unending quest to fulfill our food desires.
Begun as online magazine The Gilded Fork® in 2005, we expanded into multimedia in 2007 when we launched the world’s first all-food podcast channel, which eventually became the Culinary Media Network®. We have now returned to our original name (reason here), as we kinda dig the Gilded thing.
There is tons for you to enjoy on this site from our years of traveling and tasting, so we’ve put together a little overview below — there’s a whole lot of content. Even further below is a glimpse at who we are with links to all our contact information. We’d love to hear from you, as it is in the sharing of our passion and excitement for food that we find the most gratification, so we invite you to comment on all of our posts. Doing this work for a living is fun — but it’s in sharing it with you that we find the greatest rewards.
Here’s what you can find on this site:
- TEST KITCHEN: Our virtual Test Kitchen is the heart (hearth?) of this site, with detailed profiles on ingredients from apples to zucchini, including their history, cooking how-tos and recipes. We also have complete dinner party menus complete with wine pairings and oodles of chef’s notes to make it easy. Our entire recipe collection is also listed by category for you to explore.
- PODCASTS: Our podcasts look at various aspects of food in both audio and video formats, with shows including ReMARKable Palate, Food Philosophy, This Week in Food (formerly CHIC) and the Culinary Roundtable. You can see the archives for each individual show from the “Shows” drop-down menu in our navigation bar. Our CMN Travels video series features destinations around the world, from Indonesia to Colonial Williamsburg. Nominated for a Tasty Award in 2009 & 2010 for Best Food Travel Series: Web, our videos feature interviews with chefs and purveyors, food from street eats to 5-star restaurants, wines, spirits and historical venues. You can see all the posts, video and otherwise, from each destination from the “Travel & Places” drop-down menu in our navigation bar.
- COOKING CLASSES: Launched in 2010, our new Gilded Fork Cooking School features online cooking courses and how-tos. Chef Mark’s Knife Skills 101 is now live, along with other courses on entertaining. There is much to come in 2011, including Jennifer’s pet project, Bachelor’s Boot Camp.
- GILDED FORK COOKBOOK: In 2009 we released our first cookbook, The Gilded Fork: Entertaining at Home. Featuring a year of dinner party menus complete with extensive Chef’s Notes and beverage pairings, this cookbook is your ideal companion for inviting friends and family to dine in.
- GOURMET GIFTS: Our Gilded Fork Gourmet Boutique features some of our favorite finds, including Tondo balsamic vinegar, DoubleShot coffees, Allure Estates olive oil, Keres Spices and Sugardaddy’s brownies. We make it a point to know our vendors personally, as we want to find the best that’s out there and share it with you. In most cases we’ve also got an interview or article featuring our purveyors.
- Other Culinary Musings: Our blog posts, articles and interviews include our varied thoughts about cuisine and what’s happening in the world of food. We often share recaps of the events we attend, things that excite us personally, and even the things that make us rant.
We also offer consulting services in audio/video production, blog/web site creation and social media, from tutorials to strategic development and execution.
Here’s a brief glimpse at who we are, with links to our full bios:
Jennifer Iannolo
CEO / Editor-in-Chief
As a committed food philosopher, Jennifer founded The Gilded Fork in 2005 to celebrate the sensual pleasures of food. After spending a decade in the food industry and launching Relais & Chateaux’s Ecole des Chefs program with some of the world’s greatest chefs, she was eager to explore the passion that inspires people to choose food and wine as a metier. She was then introduced to one Chef Mark Tafoya, who was doing this newfangled thing called podcasting. Jennifer is a graduate of NYU’s Stern School of Business, and was featured in the New York Times bestseller Secrets of the Young & Successful. Full Bio
Chef Mark Tafoya
Executive Chef / Executive Producer
There are few people on earth who get as excited about food as Chef Mark. A dedicated culinary explorer, he is always ready (with camera in hand) to discover the next destination. As a personal chef, he is eager to express these discoveries in new flavors for his clients via his ReMARKable Palate Personal Chef Service. A former Broadway actor, Chef Mark began his podcast in 2005 to meld together his love of food and performing. When he met Jennifer, they put all of that together in one big pot and stirred. Chef Mark is a Yale graduate, and has been featured in numerous media outlets, including Bon Appetit magazine. Full Bio
Madeline Shores
Food Editor
Madeline is the keeper of sanity and organization around here, and helps to get us back on course when we are creatively running amok. An avid food blog stalker, she also takes care of our weekly blog roundup. We like her so much we’ve put her in charge of the soon-to-be-unveiled virtual test kitchen, so we hope she won’t make the elves cry. Madeline also really loves cheese, food writing and long walks on the beach. Full Bio
Kalle Guinn
Editorial Assistant
A recent shift from business suit to chef coat has immersed Kalle into the culinary world head-first. As a line chef and culinary school student, she finds that every day brings a new food adventure. And as our editorial intern, she explores and shares the pleasures of food with our Gilded Fork readers. When she is not ranting, raving or eating, she enjoys running, music, reading, and thinking about what to eat next. The conversation never ends, and that is the fun part. Full Bio
Chef Monica Glass
Pastry Princess
Unbridled passion is what has driven Monica to become a rising star among American pastry chefs. What started out with an internship to explore life in the kitchen has turned into a career, and Monica is now Pastry Chef at Eric Ripert’s 10Arts restaurant in Philadelphia. Most of the desserts featured on this site have come from the mind and palate of this talented young lady, dubbed the “Pastry Princess” when Jennifer could not stop swooning over her recipes. A graduate of Penn State, Monica is excited to launch her new blog in 2010, so get your palate ready for sugar and smiles. Full Bio
Tiffany Li
Editorial Assistant:Pastry
Tiffany began her culinary journey as a food columnist, and then took a trip on the apprentice train for awhile as a sous pastry chef, with a layover in teaching and education. Growing up surrounded by enriching memories, vivid smells and wondrous tastes, it was only natural that Tiffany’s pursuits in life are so heavily entwined with food today. The underlying foundation to all her pursuits is her enjoyment of sharing her edible adventures with others, and her adventures lead her here, where she is assisting the Pastry Princess in bringing sugar and smiles to all our lives. Full Bio
Amanda Olsen
Kitchen Gnome
Office gnome by day and foodcrafter by night, Amanda’s passions run amok in the kitchen. As an accomplished home cook, she can be found whipping up a coq au vin or a heady Bolognese on any given evening. Food preservation really gets her going, and she’s usually got home canned fruits in the pantry and bacon curing in the fridge. Full Bio
Kelly Cline
Food Pornographer
When it comes to sumptuous, swoon-inducing food photography, nobody does it better than Kelly. Jennifer discovered one of her photos in 2005, and that has led to 5 years relationship of collaboration and friendship. Now recognized as a leading food photographer, Kelly has been featured in national magazines, on the Food Network, and in numerous cookbooks. Her passion is so contagious that she is now a correspondent for FOX News in Seattle. But we found her first. Full Bio
Lenn Thompson
Wine Pairing Dude
Lenn is the creator of Wine Blogging Wednesday and the New York Cork Report, and when we need pairings for our entertaining menus, he’s our go-to guy. His work has been recognized in numerous media outlets, incuding a nomination for Best Wine Blog in Saveur magazine’s 1st Annual Food Blog Awards. Full Bio
