Nancy Harmon Jenkins

Nancy Harmon Jenkins is a food writer and journalist with a passionate interest in Mediterranean cultures and cuisines, sustainable agriculture, and farm-to-market connections. She began writing about food in various parts of the Mediterranean in 1975, and has a long list of publications to her credit, including books, magazines, and journalism. Author of a number of highly acclaimed cookbooks, as well as a novel and a study of Ancient Egyptian maritime archeology, she also writes for the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Saveur, and Eating Well, among other publications. She has been a staff writer for the New York Times food section, publications director of the American Institute of Wine & Food, and a founding director of Oldways Preservation & Exchange Trust.

Nancy spends half the year on a rustic farm in the hills outside Cortona, Tuscany, where she makes extra-virgin olive oil from a small orchard she planted; the rest of the time she lives in an enchanting village on the coast of Maine where she was born. In both places she spends a lot of time in the kitchen, playing with food, studying the results, and creating dishes to seduce friends and family. She has never regretted giving up a career as an Egyptologist to focus on food.