Kim Severson

New York Times food writer Kim Severson's newest book, "Spoon Fed: How Eight Cooks Saved My Life," will be published by Riverhead Press on April 15, 2010. Read more about the author at http://www.kimseverson.com.

Here's her bio in a nutshell: Severson has been a staff writer for the New York Times since 2004. Previously, she spent six years writing about cooking and the culture of food for the San Francisco Chronicle. Before that, she had a seven-year stint as an editor and reporter at The Anchorage Daily News in Alaska. She has also covered crime, education, social services and government for daily newspapers on the West Coast.

Severson has won several regional and national awards for news and feature writing, including the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism for her work on childhood obesity in 2002 and four James Beard awards for food writing.

A new edition of Severson's first book, "The New Alaska Cookbook," came out in May 2009. Her second book, "The Trans Fat Solution: Cooking and Shopping to Eliminate the Deadliest Fat from Your Diet," was published by Ten Speed Press in 2003.