Kat is currently the senior food and drinks editor at Time Inc.'s Extra Crispy, a website devoted to breakfast and all that it entails. She is also the former editor at large and editor in chief of Tasting Table and was the founding editor of CNN's food section Eatocracy. She was also an editor and writer for CNN Living.
She is a frequent public speaker and we are always inspired by her honesty and ability to cut through unnecessary material to arrive at the truth. We were recently moved by her presentation at Rene Redzepi's MAD Symposium where she addressed the sometimes taboo topics of anxiety and depression in the culinary industry.
Her presentation, entitled Feeding the Beast, offered food industry professionals assurance that anxiety is something we collectively experience and is not something to be ashamed of in this highwire profession we navigate on a daily basis.
Her book, Hi Anxiety: Life With a Bad Case of Nerves was published by Harper Collins in November, 2016. It offers comfort and solutions for those who suffer with anxiety and provides a message of solidarity from one of our industry's brightest lights. Kat's willingness to tackle problems head on and her ability to find answers for the culinary industry's most challenging issues makes her an ideal host for a conference focused on innovation.
Kat's website Chefs With Issues is one of the most innovative resources currently available for chefs and other food professionals who are experiencing stress in their personal and working lives.
The website's goal is "for the care and feeding of the people who feed us" and because it is helmed by Kat, it provides straightforward, tangible and innovative solutions and support for chefs who might be struggling and are not sure where to turn.
We could not be more honored to welcome Kat to Roots: Innovate 2017. She is a perpetual beacon of hope and inspiration in our culinary industry and we are humbled that she will be taking the stage at a conference devoted to the care and feeding of each and every one of you.