Nourish Network | connecting YOU to a nourished life

Alison Ashton, Editorial Director

A longtime editor, writer, and recipe developer, Alison Ashton is a Cordon Bleu-trained chef. She has worked as a features editor for a national wire service and as senior food editor for a top food magazine. Her work has appeared in Cooking Light, Vegetarian Times, and Natural Health, and she co-authored Romantic Days & Nights in San Diego (Globe Pequot). A native of San Diego, Ashton has traveled extensively, sampling foods all over the world. One of her most unusual eating experiences was sampling bull’s penis and snake in a tiny town on a tributary of China’s Yangtze River. After living in the Deep South for six years, Ashton developed a healthy appreciation for barbecue but never did come around on okra. She considers cheese to be a separate food group. Her dog, Rascal, is her official kitchen assistant. Visit Alison on Nourish Network here.

Cheryl Sternman Rule, Frequent Contributor

Cheryl Sternman Rule is a widely published food and nutrition writer whose articles and original recipes have appeared in magazines, cookbooks, and online.  She has written for EatingWell, Body + Soul, Health, Vegetarian Times, Cooking Light, Restaurants & Institutions, Culinate, and the American Heart Association, among others.  She is also the voice behind the popular food blog 5 Second Rule.  Cheryl’s colorful work history includes time in a commercial bakery and two years each at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, DC and as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Eritrea, East Africa.  A culinary school graduate, she is currently working on a cookbook about produce. Visit Cheryl on Nourish Network here.

Jacqueline Church, Frequent Contributor

Jacqueline Church is an independent writer whose work has appeared in national and regional print magazines, and various online publications. She often writes about gourmet food, sustainability issues and the intersection of the two. Currently, she’s at work on Pig Tales: a Love Story about heritage breed pigs, the farmers and chefs bringing them from farm to table. For three years she has written the Gourmet Food column on Suite101.com and published the Leather District Gourmet blog. Visit Jacqueline on Nourish Network (as ldgourmet) here.

Kurt Michael Friese, Frequent Contributor

Chef Kurt Michael Friese is the founding leader of Slow Food Iowa, serves on the Slow Food USA National Board of Directors, and is editor and publisher of the local food magazine Edible Iowa River Valley.  A graduate and former Chef-Instructor at the New England Culinary Institute, he has been Chef and owner, with his wife Kim McWane Friese, of the Iowa City restaurant Devotay for 12 years. Friese is a freelance food writer and photographer as well, with regular columns in 6 local, regional and national newspapers and magazines, and his book, A Cook’s Journey: Slow Food in the Heartland was published in 2008 by Ice Cube Press. Visit Kurt on Nourish Network (as Devotay) here.