Meet the ‘Taste of Home’ Editors
Updated: May 04, 2024
Get to know the editorial team behind Taste of Home's magazine, books and website.
Taste of Home‘s editors are proud to be home cooks and entertainers, just like you. With backgrounds in writing and journalism, we’re passionate about discovering the latest trends and recipes, highlighting tastemakers in the food world and sharing those “a-ha!” cooking tips and tools we can hardly live without.
We’d love to introduce ourselves.
The Taste of Home Brand Editorial Team
Ellie Martin Cliffe
Content Director
A member of the lifestyle media since the mid-aughts, Ellie Martin Cliffe joined the Taste of Home team in 2010 and has since edited and written for books, special interest publications, the flagship magazine and the website. These days, she leads the growing team of editors, sharing tasty recipes, no-fail cooking tips and entertaining inspiration. Gluten- and dairy-free since 2017, Ellie’s a staff go-to on allergy-friendly foods.
If you don’t find her tapping away at her laptop, look for Ellie in her family’s urban veggie garden, at her sewing machine or on a local trail, biking with her spouse and third grader.
Favorite Taste of Home recipe: Gluten-Free Potato Salad
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Rachel Vigoda
Deputy Editor
Rachel Vigoda joined the Taste of Home team as a senior editor after several years of writing about food, travel and entertainment for a variety of newspapers and magazines and running a food-focused news site for Eater. When she’s not tracking culinary trends and collaborating with TOH editors on digital content, you can find her experimenting with vegan recipes, checking out new restaurants near her home in Philadelphia and planning weekend getaways, usually inspired by her travel guidebook, Moon Pennsylvania.
Favorite Taste of Home recipe: Best Hummus
Lara Eucalano
Senior Editor
Lara Eucalano is an editor who manages Taste of Home‘s extraordinary community of contributors. She assigns and edits content about techniques, tools and, of course, food trends. Lara’s degree in English from St. Norbert College helps her ensure that every piece of content is clear and accurate.
You can find her at home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, gardening and keeping an eye on her flock of backyard chickens.
Favorite Taste of Home recipe:Â Two-Berry Pavlova
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Emily Racette Parulski
Senior Editor
Emily Racette Parulski manages Taste of Home’s newsletter team and top edits digital content. She graduated from Bradley University and has been writing and editing food and lifestyle content professionally for over a decade. When she’s not working, she can be found in her kitchen baking something sweet or enjoying a scoop of custard somewhere in Milwaukee.
Favorite Taste of Home recipe:Â Chicken Potpie Galette with Cheddar-Thyme Crust
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Kim Wehby
Senior Editor
Kim Wehby is a senior editor for Taste of Home, where she assigns and edits digital recipe content. Kim has more than a decade of experience in food writing, recipe editing and copyediting for print and digital outlets. As a lifelong learner, she holds a certificate in copyediting from the University of San Diego, a certificate in health-supportive culinary arts from the Natural Gourmet Institute and a degree in zoology from Southern Illinois University.  Â
Kim lives in the South with her husband and son, where you’ll find her experimenting with native landscaping, attempting to find flat paths for bike riding and amassing an endless list of outdoor places to explore.Â
Favorite Taste of Home recipe: Chocolate-Peanut Butter Sheet Cake
Lauren Pahmeier
Editor
Lauren Pahmeier focuses on search engine optimization for Taste of Home, making sure that readers can find all the recipes and other food-related content they need on Google. She loves collaborating with the Test Kitchen to polish up old recipes with new photos, while also creating assignments, writing articles and contributing toward other SEO-related efforts. While studying for her bachelor’s degree in professional journalism from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, she served as the co-founder and editor of her school’s chapter of Spoon University, and since then has freelanced for Eater Twin Cities.
Outside of work, Lauren hunts down the newest restaurants, specialty coffees and most indulgent desserts wherever she goes, while simultaneously practicing her food photography for @_whatsforsupper_, where she documents her favorite food finds.
Favorite Taste of Home recipe:Â Roasted Pumpkin Nachos
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Rosie Siefert
Editor
Rosemary Siefert writes food content and helps manage Taste of Home’s freelance community. She writes and edits content about cooking tips and all things baked goods. Rosie’s degrees in journalism and English from the University of Missouri lend to her skills as an editor, while her love for trying new recipes and learning new kitchen hacks shines in her writing.
If Rosie isn’t making a (fun) mess in the kitchen, she’s exploring Kansas City, holed up at a coffee shop with a book or clanging away on one of the typewriters in her collection.
Favorite Taste of Home recipe: Slow-Cooker Short Ribs
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Caroline Stanko
Editor
Caroline Stanko spends her days researching, writing and editing SEO- and other channel-driven content for Taste of Home. As the editorial lead for the brand’s video team, she also schedules and writes scripts for many of the videos you see on the site. Caroline got her start in the publishing world as an editorial intern for Taste of Home while earning her bachelor’s in writing-intensive English from Marquette University in 2016. Since then, she has worked her way up from associate editor to editor of the brand. When she’s not typing away at a keyboard, Caroline spends her time mixing up a killer cocktail or burning through her to-be-read list.
Favorite Taste of Home recipe: It’s a tie between Malted Chocolate & Stout Layer Cake and Zucchini Pizza Casserole
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Alyssa Asaro
Associate Editor
After writing food content for Orlando Family Magazine and Chicago Parent Magazine, Alyssa Asaro found herself curating email newsletters and writing recipe collections for Taste of Home. She graduated with honors from the University of Central Florida with a degree in English literature. Since then, she has interned for the likes of Cozy Cat Press and TouchPoint Press, and held odd jobs including working at a gem store.
In her free time, Alyssa enjoys reading and writing, as well as watching TV and movies. She’s a published poet now residing in Chicago.
Favorite Taste of Home recipe: Special Creamed Corn
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Lesley Balla
Associate Editor
Lesley Balla joined the Taste of Home team in 2022 to help track trends and write and update digital content. After working in the hospitality and beverage industry, she found herself reporting on it for almost two decades, covering local food and wine scenes for print and digital publications, highlighting both famous and unsung heroes, and featuring new travel destinations. When not at her desk, you’ll probably find Lesley hitting local farm stands whenever she can, baking something delicious at home, or road-tripping around the Pacific Northwest with her husband and pup, Pucci.
Favorite Taste of Home recipe:Â Cheese-Herb Potato Fans
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Ivis Estrada
Assistant Editor
Ivis Estrada is an assistant editor for Taste of Home where she helps contribute to lifestyle and food content and builds recipe collections. She loves trying new recipes and came to truly enjoy cooking when the pandemic started. She’s found a passion in re-creating copycat recipes and exploring meat-alternative dishes.
Ivis graduated with a journalism degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she was a contributing writer in the lifestyle section for MODA Magazine. Since graduating, Ivis has worked in marketing, curating newsletters, managing social media accounts and writing blog posts. Outside of work, you can find her obsessing over her dog or binge-watching classic movies.
Favorite Taste of Home recipe: Copycat Zuppa Toscana
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Jessica Kaplan
Assistant Editor
Jessica Kaplan creates trend content for Taste of Home. When it comes to all things food news, she’s an expert. Jessica has previously written lifestyle content for Reader’s Digest, Family Handyman and The Healthy. These days, she loves trying out the latest TikTok recipes and exploring New York eateries and coffee shops.
Favorite Taste of Home recipe:Â Parmesan Risotto
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Val Goodrich
Food Writer
Val Goodrich is a food writer at Taste of Home. She channels her experience from the Culinary Institute of America and stints at a handful of bakeries into her daily work. She’s usually typing away at her desk in Philly, but otherwise, you can find her planning her next trip, using her ice cream maker or filling her basket at the farmers market.
Favorite Taste of Home recipe: Pumpkin Ice Cream
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Lindsay Mattison
Food Writer
Lindsay Mattison officially joined the Taste of Home team in 2023, though she has been contributing to the website since 2017. After graduating from culinary school, Lindsay was the executive chef of a farm-to-table restaurant. While she still cooks professionally for the occasional pop-up event, she now dedicates her time to writing. She loves inspiring home cooks and food enthusiasts to build confidence in the kitchen, learning how to tackle unwieldy roasts, blend flavors or turn seasonal ingredients into beautiful meals.
Lindsay lives outside Portland, Oregon, where you’ll find her cooking from her haul at the farmers market, camping on the coast or planning a trip to seek out the best new restaurants
Favorite Taste of Home recipe: Ultimate Fish Tacos
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The Taste of Home Shopping Team
Reina Galhea
Deputy Shopping Editor
Reina has been a baking enthusiast since she was old enough to hold a whisk, and her love of food has become a large part of her career. She’s created content for iconic food brands such as Kroger, Smuckers and Crisco, and even had a short tenure as a cookbook editor. These days, she helps lead the Shopping Team at Taste of Home, guiding readers toward the very best kitchen and home products. She’s a UCLA grad (go, Bruins!), where she majored in English. In her off time, you can find her testing cooking hacks, impulse baking or watching terrible Netflix food shows (but really…is it cake?).
Favorite Taste of Home recipe: Ozark Mountain Berry Pie
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Katie Bandurski
Senior Shopping Editor
Growing up, Katie Bandurski loved rifling through her mom’s cookbook collection and scoring deals at the mall. Today, she spends her time pitching, writing and editing affiliate content for tasteofhome.com. An avid foodie and a holiday enthusiast, Katie is an expert at cultivating meaningful moments. Katie graduated with honors from Drake University in 2018, with a major in magazine journalism.
When she’s not whipping up a new recipe or browsing for the perfect gift, you’ll find Katie exploring the Midwest, sampling vegetarian eats and counting down the days until Christmas. Katie lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with her fiance, John.
Favorite Taste of Home recipe: Bake Sale Lemon Bars
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Annamarie Higley
Shopping Editor
Annamarie Higley joined the shopping team after working on Taste of Home’s print publications for four years. In this latest role, she reviews products, creates gift guides and more. She graduated from the Missouri School of Journalism and has written for Brit + Co and Edible, all of which helped her fulfill her longtime dream to work in food media.
When she’s not hemming and hawing about comma placement, Annamarie loves traveling to new cities (based largely on the local fare, of course), hiking, collaging, reading and cooking.
Favorite Taste of Home recipe: Hot Almond ‘n’ Cream Drink
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Madi Koetting
Associate Shopping Editor
For Madi Koetting, food has always been a way to connect with people and culture. Cooking and entertaining is like therapy for Madi, which is a practice she developed from baking heirloom recipes with her grandma and helping her mom with family dinners growing up. Whether she’s exploring Denver eateries or hosting a dinner party, she loves any occasion that centers around good food and drinks.
She also grew up rearranging her childhood bedroom to create the ultimate happy space, and now she helps readers do the same by creating shopping content around home décor, cleaning and organizing for tasteofhome.com.
Madi earned a degree in magazine journalism and public relations from Drake University. When she’s not shopping, you can find Madi exploring Colorado and mastering her espresso martini recipe.
Favorite Taste of Home recipe: Frozen Blueberry-Mint Margaritas
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The Taste of Home Print Team
Mark Hagen
Content Director, Editorial Products
The former owner of his own catering business, Mark Hagen has been part of the Taste of Home team for the past 20 years. A comfort-food junkie, he has written for Quick Cooking, Light & Tasty and Country Woman magazines as well as various Pillsbury and Betty Crocker cookbooks. When he’s not spending time in the kitchen with his West Highland Terrier, Rocco, he’s working in his yard, doing stand-up comedy or devouring a platter of nachos. (Most likely the latter.)
Favorite Taste of Home recipe: Blend of the Bayou
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Christine Rukavena
Senior Editor
Christine Rukavena loves to read, curate, sample and develop new recipes as a senior book editor at Taste of Home. A Culinary Institute of America alumna with honors, she creates cookbooks and food-related content. A favorite part of the job is taste-testing dishes. Previous positions include pastry chef at a AAA Five Diamond property. Christine moonlights at a boutique wine shop, where she edits marketing pieces and samples wine far higher than her pay grade.Â
Favorite Taste of Home recipe:Â Parmesan-Coated Brie
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Julie Schnittka
Senior Editor
Julie Schnittka coordinates Taste of Home’s newsstand publications. She became a foodie when she first started with the brand in the 1990s and helped launch the cookbook department. Julie’s passion for trying new recipes on family and friends is evidenced by her ever-growing, bulging file of printouts that she intends to get through one day. When off the clock, she enjoys reading, biking, eating out and walking her puggle, Howie.
Favorite Taste of Home recipe:Â Chicken Cheese Lasagna
Hazel Wheaton
Editor
A writer and editor who has worked in publishing for 30 years, Hazel Wheaton has worked in the fields of travel, food and jewelry arts. She has had the rare privilege of learning about food by listening to local experts and tasting everything she was offered—including almond pastries in Morocco, whisky and haggis in Orkney, escargot in Lyon, spiced lamb in Abu Dhabi, and dried shrimp at the night market in Taipei.
A native of central Pennsylvania, she’s a devoted fan of her own local cuisine as well, including scrapple, shoofly pie and apple dumplings. After taking culinary classes in Philadelphia, Hazel sadly decided her feet weren’t cut out for restaurant work but has found her own place with food at Taste of Home. An enthusiastic baker, she’s known for her cookies, cakes and other baked goods. And she still wishes she could cook like her mother.
Favorite Taste of Home recipe: Lovely Lemon Cheesecake
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Sammi DiVito
Assistant Editor
Sammi DiVito helps manage and edit Taste of Home’s special interest publications. After graduating from the University of Minnesota with a degree in journalism, she moved to Milwaukee in order to be closer to home—her favorite place to go for a 5-star meal. An enthusiast of all things baked goods, Sammi spends her days staring at photos of food and saving recipes to try (much to the delight of her friends and family).
When she’s at home, she enjoys reading her way through the stack of books on her nightstand, writing and trying to perfect her chocolate chip scone recipe.
Favorite Taste of Home recipe: Hazelnut Chocolate Chip Scones
Want to join our team? Look for openings on Trusted Media Brands’ careers page.
