She is the recipient of a James Beard award for feature writing about restaurants/chefs, a Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism award of excellence for diversity writing, an award from the American Association of Sunday and Features Editors, and numerous honors from the Association of Food Journalists, and the Peninsula Press Club. She has judged a bevy of food contests, including the biggie of them all, the Pillsbury Bake-Off.

For 11 years, she was the food writer/editor for the San Jose Mercury News. She has been a contributor to the "Good Living" section of Gourmet magazine, and to the book, "The Slow Food Guide to San Francisco and the Bay Area." She is also the creator of the food and wine blog, FoodGal.com.