Terese Allen

Terese Allen writes about the pleasures and benefits of regional foods, sustainable cooking, and culinary folklore. She is food editor and columnist for Organic Valley Family of Farms, the country’s largest organic farmers’ cooperative, and a food columnist and editorial consultant for Edible Madison magazine.

Terese is co-author, with the late Harva Hachten, of the prize-winning expanded edition of The Flavor of Wisconsin, an extensive history of food and cooking in the Badger State, with more than 450 recipes. Published by Wisconsin Historical Society Press in Spring of 2009, the book received a starred review by Publishers Weekly and was lauded in Gastronomica magazine as and "incredible compilation [that] ought to be in every home, library, and classroom in the state, and in the hands of culinary historians and other foodies everywhere."

Terese's most recent books are The Flavor of Wisconsin for Kids, published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press in 2012, and the Wisconsin Local Foods Journal, an every-day, at-your-fingertips guide to sustainable eating all through the year. The proceeds from this annual cookbook-engagement calendar, published by Ginkgo Press, benefit REAP Food Group.

A former chef, Terese went from kitchen manager to cookbook author when she wrote The Ovens of Brittany Cookbook, a collection of recipes and remembrances from a groundbreaking Midwestern restaurant. Her subsequent books feature the diversity of Wisconsin food, culture, and agriculture--its farmers’ markets, food festivals, cheese factories, small-town cafes, and more. Her many columns, articles, and cookbooks emphasize local ingredients, seasonal dishes and ethnic specialties--and the people and stories behind them.