Laura Taxel

journalist, author

United States

Award winning writer Laura Taxel cooks, eats and writes about food from her home base in Cleveland Heights Ohio. She is the author of Cleveland Ethnic Eats, reviews restaurants and writes about local culinary movers and shakers for Cleveland Magazine and the new publication Edible Cleveland. Her articles have also appeared in the Plain Dealer, Ohio Magazine, Culture and Cooking Light. She’s a regular contributor to The National Culinary Review and Sommelier Journal. Her work was chosen for the annual anthology The Best Food Writing, in 2004, 2006, and 2008. Her new book Cleveland’s West Side Market: 100 Years & Still Cooking, written in collaboration with Marilou Suszko, was published by the University of Akron Press in October 2012 and features images by her husband photographer Barney Taxel. She finds it amazing that she earns a living by telling stories about her dining and drinking experiences and all the fascinating people she meets at the table.

Portfolio
Ediblecleveland
Modern-day Johnny Appleseed has intoxicating plan

The aroma coming from Richard Read's basement is intriguing. Amidst the big metal tanks, tangles of hose and plastic kegs, the scent-reminiscent of rising bread dough, only more biting, with whiffs of fruitiness-is evidence of magic at work. I'm in Westlake at Griffin Cider Works and the sweet, pungent, yeasty smell comes from Ohio apples in various stages of fermentation.

Ediblecleveland
Scrap Cooking

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, the average American family of four wastes between $1,350 and $,275 worth of food in a year. Much of that comes from leftovers that spoil, dairy products past the expiration date, and rotted produce.