Anniversary
Community Members Who’ve Made Food52 a Home (Plus, Their Recipes We Love)
Where would we be without our community? Short answer: Nowhere.
Food52 is 10 years old! To celebrate a decade of all things kitchen and home, we’re rolling out our top recipes, tips, and stories for another victory lap, along with some of our very favorite memories over the years. Go on, take ‘em in!
When Food52 began its journey—as Amanda and Merrill write here—we were trying to build a business around a crowd-sourced cookbook. Building a community was not necessarily the plan. However, in a matter of months, maybe even weeks, that changed: You helped us figure out what Food52 would become.
Over the years, our community has become an indispensable force: submitting recipes for contests, sharing kitchen wisdom on the hotline, organizing community potlucks, shuttling goodies across the country for our holiday swaps, delivering delicious buttery scones to our office (we've never forgotten, mrslarkin), and more recently, helping us shape every single Five Two product.
(Psst: We'd also like to mention the time you made us wish we lived in Texas.)
And while it’s impossible to thank each and every one of you, we did want to share a few community members who have made Food52 a really special, inclusive, joyful place over the years. It's a great way for us to reminisce—and a welcome reminder that food, in its most potent form, has the power to unite us and demonstrate that we care about each other.
Thank you for hanging out with us for a decade.
"To us, Mrslarkin, aka scone lady, is a friend for life! She has come to countless events, cheered on our writers and members (generously complimenting other people’s scone recipes!), contributed so many exceptional recipes (have you tried her Cinnamon Scone Bread? Run, don’t walk!), and has been an unwavering supporter of Food52 as a place that brings people together." —Amanda Hesser
“KitchenButterfly wins the prize for traveling the longest distance (all the way from Nigeria!) to visit us at our offices in New York—and she’s done this multiple times. Ozoz has always been a positive, generous contributor and a champion for other community members (plus, she brings great snacks). She truly embodies the notion of eating—and living—joyfully.” —Merrill Stubbs
“Austin-based Aargersi has long been a voice of pure joy, humor, and sass on Food52—and throws the best community pool parties (some of them may or may not have featured cannonball competitions). She also hosted the supergroup Ginger’s Kitchen (named after her late terrier, Ginger), a band of community members who created recipes together to enter into our contests.” —Kristen Miglore
“I so enjoyed working with Lastnightsdinner on a piece about her Roast Chicken With Mustard & Grapes (“We're pretty certain we could eat this one every day." –Amanda & Merrill). Her recipes—and she's been contributing to the site since our very first year—are everything I want to eat right now, like this fried provolone and tomato sandwich, linguine with sardines and fennel, and fettuccine with chicken liver ragu.” —Emma Laperreque
“HalfPint calls herself a “Financial Analyst who does a little cooking,” but the wit, wisdom, and cooking know-how she brings to Food52 are far from “little.” HalfPint always seems to know exactly what to do, from repurposing your extra egg whites to using up the last few capers in the jar. And luckily for us, she’s been kind enough to share it all with us over the years.” —Brinda Ayer
“Pierino was such an influential part of our community for so long (since August 2009!). We could always count on him for strong conviction about the right and wrong ways of cooking a dish. When it came to pizza he was no different. We were so deeply saddened by his loss.” —Joanna Sciarrino
"AntoniaJames has been with us since the beginning, sharing Genius tips and plenty of inspiration (she literally hikes a mountain with her family every Thanksgiving and serves a feast)." —Kristen Miglore
“I really appreciate Stephanie B. and Smaug because they're often in the comments section before anybody else, even answering technical questions another reader might have about a recipe. Stephanie is an avid home cook, scientist, and proud Wisconsin-er, and Smaug makes his own ice cream once a week (which is undeniably cool).” —Eric Kim
“I'm always thrilled to see Inpatskitchen participating in our recipe contests! Her deep store of creativity never ceases to impress me. (She's also the contributor of what might well be the most perfect cheesecake recipe ever.)” —Ella Quittner
"I love seeing BerryBaby pop up on the Hotline because she has such handy suggestions. She's also the only community member who uses emojis in her comments, and it always makes me think, 'Huh, I didn’t know our site supported emojis.'” —Eric Kim
“EmilyC is a legend. Her almost 200 (!) recipes on the site are gems—each and every one of them—packing huge flavor into ridiculously low-fuss, high-reward packages. Her contributions to our immensely popular cookbook, Mighty Salads, are beyond clever, like using mayonnaise as the ultimate vegetable marinade, and roasting whole salads on sheet pans for ease and convenience.” —Brinda Ayer
And finally, a note from Amanda about having your sister as an active community member of your site!
"My sister Rhonda, and Merrill’s sister, Abbie, were likely our first two community members. Having my sister on the site meant getting candid user feedback whether we liked it or not ('Yr search engine stinks.' 'How about you guys use spell-check?'), but she was also one of our strongest defenders.
I will also say this: While I was the one who went to cooking school, Rhonda continues to be a better cook than I am. She cooks like our grandmother did, always able to turn a few scraps of food into something delicious." —Amanda Hesser
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22 Comments
I will celebrate my own ten years on Food52 this Saturday. I'll be organizing an anniversary potluck in my new home in Boulder County soon.
I suggested here on the site, in November 2009, that we have a potluck (it seemed so crazy, and daring, at the time) and then went and organized the very first one -- I think it's the first . . . . I was told it was the first, in any event -- and quite a few more over the years, in my home in Piedmont, CA.
What an extraordinary community we have here. So many of you have become wonderful friends. This community generously offers so much knowledge, so much cleverness, and so much inspiration.
Again, thank you, all of you, for your contributions and kindness. ;o)
-ct
Nancy, creamtea, AntoniaJames, ChefJune, and HalfPint offer up such solid advice whether it's troubleshooting a specific recipe or coming up with a cohesive menu for a party. LoriT, boulangere, and pieceoflayercake (I don't think he's on much anymore though) give such detailed explanations, they're baking goldmines. I enjoy the side of bone-dry humor Smaug can dish out in addition to his cooking experience (also absent lately). And I'll never forget that time Ttrockwood got a bad Mean Girls joke I made that was otherwise turning up crickets, made me seem like less of total weirdo. When I first started perusing Food52 for recipes, I was in my early 20s and had about as much cooking skill as you would expect, if you had low to moderate expectations. I've learned a lot from community members and I truly appreciate the time they take to help out on the hotline and share recipes.
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