MyRecipes.com: An Interview with a Food Editor
I have always loved browsing recipes, whether it be in magazines, cookbooks, or on the internet. I have printed out and bookmarked so many recipes that I have found on various recipe sites and blogs. MyRecipes.com is a site that I discovered just recently. The site has 35,000+ recipes and many health and food related articles.
Last Monday, I had the privilege of interviewing Holly Johnson Grainger, Food Editor for MyRecipes.com. What an amazing job she has! I would love to trade places with her for at least a day and experience her life as a food editor. I enjoyed talking to Holly and learning all about MyRecipes.com. Enjoy the interview!
Q: What are your daily job responsibilities as a food editor?
A: I am a Dietitian, and I oversee the Healthy Diet channel. I write articles and freelance articles to be written. Right now, I am also overseeing the seasonal Grilling channel. I am involved in the media and public relations aspects of MyRecipes.com. I do television and radio spots to share recipes and discuss food/health topics. Recently, I did a spot on CNN about getting enough water.
I am also involved in the on site taping of the Dinner Tonight videos. We have an all digital studio kitchen, and we spend 2-3 days taping. In a typical day, we usually tape 10 episodes in a row.
Q: Where do you find the recipes that are featured on the site?
A: All the recipes are kitchen tested and come from magazines, especially those within Time Inc., including:
Q: What elements are the kitchen testers evaluating?
A: We have three tests kitchens on site with at least 10-12 staff members in each. They are evaluating a variety of aspects when testing each recipe. The following are some of the characteristics that the testers evaluate:
- Overall taste and flavor
- Ease of preparation
- Accuracy of cook time
- Seasonality of ingredients
- Cost – Is it budget friendly?
- Number of ingredients
- Possibilities of making the recipe easier
The main goal of the kitchen testing is to make sure the consumer has the best possible experience with the recipes, and that they can trust that the recipe will produce a satisfactory result.
Q: I recently found out that I have some food allergies. I also work with children with Autism who have shown progress after adopting allergen-free diets. Does the site include any allergen-free recipes for people who have restricted diets?
A: We have an entire page dedicated to the Gluten Free Diet. All 35,000+ recipes on the site were analyzed to find 2000 recipes that were gluten free. The site also features several articles focusing on gluten free diets, including Gluten Free Diets and Autism. With regards to other allergies, an advanced search can be done on the site to search for recipes that exclude certain food categories.
I hope you enjoyed the interview and that you will visit MyRecipes.com soon!
Thanks to Holley for taking the time to talk to me and for sharing all the wonderful information about her job and MyRecipes.com.
I recently interviewed Holley, too! Her job sounds amazing and I loved learning even more about it from your interview! Great job!
Oh, and I wanted to add that I enjoyed learning even more about the MyRecipes site as well! Loved all your questions!
That’s AWESOME that you were able to interview her! I loved reading this Q&A! Thanks for sharing!
I just found your site through Kath Eats. It’s great! I look forward to having time to read more
Very cool interview! I am so behind. I just found your new site and new look. The site is wonderful. I’m going to change it on my blogroll right now. Love it!
I never new the site was that big! Great interview Megan!
It does sound like a great job. I’m off to check out MyRecipes.com.
really interesting interview! I’ve never thought there’s so much work behind the site!
Great informational interview! I love looking at that site for Cooking Light recipes.
Exciting! What a good interview.
I enjoyed the interview. Thanks!
Megan, I love your new layout!! I’m sorry if I’m a bit behind on this, but it’s fabulous!! And Holley Grainger is so nice – it’s fun reading your interview and seeing the different types of questions that get asked. Especially the one about autism – that one hit home for me. My brother has mild autism (I think you and I have talked about this before!) and was on a gluten-free and dairy-free diet when he was younger. It did wonders! He has since started integrating certain foods back in, but this was very helpful and I am so glad you addressed such an important issue. Thank you