Melissa Pasanen

About

I'm a writer and editor with expertise in food and agriculture in Vermont and beyond. I love to tell stories, develop recipes and share information. I'm currently a staff writer for Seven Days newspaper with a focus on, and assignment responsibilities for, food, drink, agriculture and restaurant stories. In 2022, I won the Association of Alternative Newsmedia's top national award for food writing.I was the food editor for Vermont Life for nine years, contributed to Edward Behr's Art of Eating for more than 15 years, and wrote regularly for The Burlington Free Press for 14 years. I was also on Vermont public radio's VPR Cafe for six years. My work has appeared in USAToday, Parade, Culture magazine, Saveur, EatingWell, Food Network magazine, Foodnetwork.com, several Rodale publications and Acura magazine among others. I have also written three cookbooks. "Cooking with Shelburne Farms: Food and Stories from Vermont," (Viking, 2007) which I developed and wrote with the input of chef Rick Gencarelli, was named both a Food & Wine best cookbook and a New York Times Notable Cookbook of the year. I have contributed to Cabot's website and wrote "The Cabot Creamery Cookbook" (Oxmoor House, 2015) as a work-for-hire project. I recently completed "The Little Local Vermont Cookbook," which was published by W.W. Norton in May, 2020.