Ava McBath is a senior at the University of Texas at Austin, and she is majoring in Rhetoric and Writing with minor in Communications. She was born and raised in Houston, which fostered her love for food as Houston has a phenomenal food scene. With that said, Ava has always had a passion for food. Whether it is staying up into the wee hours of the morning watching the Food Network or attempting to mimic (and sometimes butcher) scrumptious recipes discovered on random food blogs, food plays a huge role in her life—as it does for everyone else, but just run with it. After graduation, she plans to move to New York. Although she has no idea what she wants to do there, you’ll see her married to a celebrity chef in the future…Or better yet, a celebrity chef herself!
Callie Meredith is a first year advertising major at the University of Texas at Austin. She was born and raised in Dallas, Texas. Her early memories of food include baking cakes and cookies with her mother. Now, Callie is most interested in exploring how food fits into different cultures. Currently, her favorite cuisine is Greek. After graduating from UT, Callie plans on working in an advertising agency doing media planning and eventually getting her master’s degree.
Chancellor Bryant is a senior Mathematics (Actuary) major. He grew up in the Austin area and has lived there his entire life. Chance is the youngest in a family of four whom all attended The University of Texas. He is not a great cook. Usually his abilities range from cereal to takeout. His hobbies include going to Texas sporting events with his dad and going to the Austin greenbelts.
Dani Gross is a first year Applied Movement Science Major at the University of Texas at Austin. She grew up in Southern California, Memphis Tennessee, and Vancouver Canada with each regions flavors changing her palate for food. She enjoys traveling and trying new foods even when at home. She grew up in a foodie household with both parents enjoying cooking and exploring new tastes and this tradition was passed onto her at a young age. She hopes to go onto become a physical therapists working with children or in geriatrics.
Davion Antwine is a senior in the school of Liberal Arts. He is a Geography major with a minor in Geosciences. He is from Houston, Texas and is one of 9 children: 6 sisters and 2 brothers. His fondest memory was Dec 24, 2001, he was about 6 years old and his great grandmother was teaching him the old family recipe for cinnamon spice tea cakes. A recipe she claimed was taught to her when she was his age, a recipe his mom knew, a recipe she hope he would teach his children one day. Today Davion enjoys to bake cakes, pies, and cookies often, he dreams of being a baker in the future and creating a school to teach under privileged children how to bake.
Emily Le is a fourth year finance student at The University of Texas at Austin. Growing up in Texas with an American sweet tooth in a Vietnamese household, she has an adventurous, insatiable appetite from the exotic, such as durian, to the traditional, such as macarons. She will spend this coming summer at her dream job at Deloitte Consulting as a consulting analyst. However, before this dream, Emily literally and figuratively dreamed of being a pastry chef or pursuing some sort of a career in the food industry; now, she regularly reads restaurant/food reviews and recipes “for fun.” She hopes to eventually open up her own bakery after retiring from the corporate world.
Hye Ji Min is a senior majoring in mathematics at the University of Texas at austin. She was born and raised in South Korea and went to high school in Houston, Texas. Since she was living alone abroad, it was essential for her to learn how to cook. She started with easy recipes and now after five years, she can make almost anything she likes to eat using internet recipes. She also started to focus on healthy nutrients instead of just finding good tastes. She is looking forward to make her family healthy and tasty foods after graduation.
Gerlou Shyy is a second year Computer Science major at The University of Texas at Austin. She was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. She has a twin sister who is in Boston for college, a younger brother, and a mixed terrier dog back home. She is a huge foodie and likes trying out new food places back home. She also likes to try cooking new things but usually doesn’t have enough time during college to cook anything besides simple dishes.
Jordan Olschwanger is a senior majoring in Economics in addition to receiving a Business Foundations Certificate. He was born in Dallas, Texas and his favorite type of food is Tex-Mex, although he will eat almost anything that is put in front of him. He cannot cook many of the things he sees on TV himself, although he likes to believe he could be on Chopped. Jordan is also a huge Dallas sports fan and still thinks of the Dallas Mavericks winning the championship on June 12, 2011 as the best day of his life.
Lovett Shaper is a sophomore Economics major at the University of Texas who is also pursuing Business Foundations and Real Estate certificates. Originally from Houston, TX, his love for food came from his mother spoiling him with amazing homemade meals every night at home while growing up. Living in Texas, Lovett has learned all there is to know about good tex-mex, but is also a sushi fanatic who enjoys ingesting an alarming amount of raw fish whenever he gets the chance. He follows several food accounts on Instagram and Facebook that both show him new restaurants to try, as well as tasty new meals to cook at home.
Matt is a Junior Advertising major from Potomac, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C. Despite some excellent athletic performances in high school, he was not able to walk on to Texas football without trying out–a controversial decision that may have led to Charlie Strong’s firing. The first dish he mastered was the tollhouse chocolate chip cookie from scratch–a scrumptious delight that his roommates constantly clamor for. In his personal life, Matt enjoys all types of music and all types of dogs. Follow his exciting life on Instagram: @kimm_jong_un
Michael is a Junior majoring in Biology and minoring in Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. He was born in Southern California but moved to East Texas at an early age. Michael’s mother is a tremendous chief and has instilled much of her own cooking knowledge in him. Michael loves meat, pizza, and Mexican food and despises most foods originating from the sea. When Michael is not eating, he can be found at the lake or the cable park where he wakeboards for UT’s team, Texas Wake.
Michael Nguyen is a senior in the computer science department at The University of Texas at Austin. As a child, he lived in Arlington, Texas, enjoying some comforts of Vietnamese food but mostly being picky about vegetables. To this day, he still does not like vegetables but makes attempts to try different types of food as he became more exposed to other cultures in Austin and then later studied abroad in Japan. It was there he picked up photography as a hobby and occasionally you can find him at various restaurants looking for the best angle to frame his food. Eventually he hopes to share the wonders of Japan whether it be through programming, photography, or writing.
Molly Franklin is a sophomore Corporate Communications major in the Moody School of Communications at The University of Texas. She was born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee and will forever think that Memphis barbecue is better than Texas barbecue. Growing up, food really brought together her 20+ person extended family for Friday night dinners at her Granny’s house.
Nima Faegh – I’m a sophomore studying Economics at the University of Texas, with a Global Business Foundations Certificate. I was born in Encinitas, California, but my family and I moved to Sugar Land (a Houston suburb) when I was around two years old. I have always loved trying new recipes from other cultures, even though I’m fairly picky when it comes to food. I enjoy cooking for myself, my family, and my friends whenever I have the ingredients and time available. My favorite food is sushi, but I also love fast food such as McDonald’s and Chick-fil-a. I also love playing video games, hanging out with friends, and traveling around the world with my family.
Rom Reideman is a sophomore at the University of Texas at Austin. He grew up in Katy, Texas, just outside of Houston with an older brother Michael and a dog named Violet. He enjoys all different kinds of food but especially enjoys kolaches, hamburgers, and pasta. His passion for eating food began as a child when he visited a Cici’s pizza buffet for the first time. Although eating is his specialty, he has recently begun to cook as well, making him a budding double threat in the culinary world.
Ryan Hoffman is a third year Sport Management major at UT, where he is also getting his Business Foundations certificate. He is from a suburb of Dallas called Colleyville, Texas, where his parents and 17 year old sister still live. Ryan is interested in food because of all the delicious flavors from around the world, and he loves to try new cuisine from any corner of the Earth. Although he doesn’t have any specific early memories dealing with food, he remembers eating a lot of it (he was a little on the chunky side around age 7 and 8) and never really finding a food he doesn’t like. When he isn’t eating food or writing about it, Ryan can be found watching TV, cheering on the Rangers, Mavericks, and Cowboys, hanging with friends, listening to music, or exploring the beautiful city of Austin. Find him on Instagram @r_hoffman
Ryan Newberg is a sophomore studying Sport Management and Business at The University of Texas. Ryan was born and raised in the great city of Austin, Texas and decided he wanted to keep his talents in Austin for college. Being obsessed with sports and non stop watching, searching & learning about them, Ryan says that eating food while enjoying a game has become a habit. Pluckers has become one of the best connections Ryan has in his life as he is a Pluckers member and knows everything about the restaurant. Chicken wings (preferably teriyaki flavor) is always on Ryan’s mind and he wishes that everybody gives them a chance. If you ever need to find Ryan, head to Pluckers on Rio.
Sarah Cordill – Sarah is currently finishing up her last year as a Nutrition and Public Health major. Growing up with three brothers and two parents that favored cooking more than eating out, food and cooking have always been a big part of Sarah’s life. She recently studied abroad in Sicily to study the Mediterranean diet and fell in love with Italian food, as well as food from other cultures. Moreover, she was born in New York City and moved down to Texas at a young age. Although she grew up in Texas, her family’s roots in the Northeast have had a major impact on her exposure to and love for different types of food. She plans to continue onto graduate school to get her Registered Dietitian’s License and a Master’s degree in Food and Nutrition. sarahcordill@utexas.edu
Savannah Davis is a 2nd year Rhetoric and Writing Major at the University of Texas at Austin. She is originally from Seattle, Washington and has attended one year of college in a small town in Southern California and completed beauty school in Los Angeles. From these various living situations, she has experienced all types of cuisine and has found food to be a consistent source of blissfulness, whether she is eating, cooking, or watching the Food Network. While her passion lies with baking, her creativity shines when creating recipes from random food in the house. One thing she is still figuring out, does Seattle or Austin have better food?
Tori Thacher – I am a third year English major at UT. I hope to one day be an editor for a publishing company or a writer/editor for a nonprofit. The goal is to somehow make a living from reading books. I am from Midland, TX a place of many tumbleweeds and petroleum engineers. I enjoy reading, walking, going to sleep early and eating. I decided to take this course because I want to be more food literate and more adventurous in what I make and eat. torithacher@gmail.com