TheRunawaySpoon

You can run. You can hide. But -- that's right -- you can't escape our love. TheRunawaySpoon is one of food52's winningest cooks: like only someone raised in a community who cooks could be. No stranger to the merits of crowd-sourced recipes, she writes in one Winners' Q&A, "I had this cookbook from a Junior League in South Carolina [growing up] that came with colored metal measuring cups and spoons. The drawings in the book showed you when to use 1 red cup, or 1 green tablespoon. I cooked for my family from that book -- I still use some of the recipes. It is one of my most treasured possessions."

From her Peaches Poached with Basil to her Pastitsio, this cook dials in winners like a quick phone call home. Her style in the kitchen is at once delicately nuanced and homey with a tall dose of Southern flavor: we're talking hearty Rhubarb Crumb Cake on the one hand and subtle Rhubarb Vanilla Jam on the other (can you imagine these together? A match made in rhubarb heaven.)

As her food52 name suggests, TheRunawaySpoon is not short on whimsy. When asked what famous person she would most like to cook for and share a meal with, she responds, "Calvin Trillin -- I could cook up a good Southern meal, and maybe show the Kansas City boy what real Memphis barbecue is. Plus, we could talk food and maybe he could entertain me while I cook by speaking in rhyme!" Presumably, there would be Pimento Cheese Biscuits and Savory Sausage Breakfast Cake for her special guest at breakfast. 

We would expect no less entertaining a plan from the winner of Your Best Open House Dish. TheRunawaySpoon, are your coffee tables dotted with plates piled high with Fig and Blue Cheese Savouries? Well, we sure hope so -- now there's a cookie for which a cow would almost definitely jump over the moon.