Karen Kaplan is a freelance writer, editor, translator and recipe developer. She was on staff at Bon Appétit magazine for twenty years. She was also the restaurant critic for the L.A. Weekly, a radio host, a consultant for culinary websites and food-based reality television shows, a contributor to national and international food and travel magazines, and a writer and recipe developer for several major cookbooks. She graduated from La Varenne École de Cuisine, has taught at USC and UCLA and speaks Spanish, French and Italian. She lives in Studio City, California, USA.