Karen Solomon has been a well-published food writer for over a decade. In addition to the Asian Pickles series, she’s also author of Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It and Can It, Bottle It, Smoke It (Ten Speed Press/Random House). Additionally, she’s the author of The Cheap Bastard’s Guide to San Francisco (Globe Pequot Press) and contributing author to Chow! San Francisco Bay Area: 300 Affordable Places for Great Meals & Good Deals (Sasquatch Press) and a former contributing editor to Zagat Survey: San Francisco Bay Area Restaurants.

Her edible musings on DIY cooking, the restaurant scene, sustainable food programs, culinary trends, food history, and recipe development have appeared in Saveur.com, Fine Cooking, Prevention, Yoga Journal, Vegetarian Times, Food52, Organic Style, the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Magazine, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, and elsewhere, all of which showcase the diversity of her word-wrangling plate.

Karen has presented as a guest speaker at Boston University’s Gastronomy Program (September, 2011) and at the 2009 Epicurean Classic in Michigan. She’s the former organizer and host of the Jam It Salon, a quarterly DIY “show and taste” at 18 Reasons (2009-2011) and a former organizer and host of theBaby Food Swap (2010). She has served as a judge for both the Eat Real Festival Contest and the Good Food Awards, and she’s currently a guest blogger for The Blender, the Williams-Sonoma blog, and the Bay Area Bites KQED Food Blog. Karen is also a culinary concierge of her beloved SF Mission District through eating/walking tour companyEdible Excursions.

Television appearances include Bay Area Backroads, Check, Please! Bay Area, and The Big Dish.

Karen’s culinary influences come from a variety of sources. While teaching English in Japanese schools and traveling throughout Asia, she had ample time to learn the satisfaction and simplicity of Japanese home cooking. And from the time she could stand on a stool and stir, Karen always enjoyed cooking alongside her mother to make chicken soup, kugel, stuffed cabbage, and other comfort foods of her Eastern European heritage. Most recently, Karen’s cooking has become more project-based and crafty, taking on homemade, improved flavors where mass production tends to dominate. She is dedicated to food preservation, as well as eating locally, sustainably, seasonally, and supporting a judicious and delicious food system.

Karen currently resides in San Francisco’s Mission district with her partner, her sons, and an equally food-obsessed dachshund, Mabel.