About How Do You Food

Hi, I’m Rachel Chartoff. Welcome to How Do You Food!

Cooking, creating recipes, and sharing the joy of cooking with others are some of my greatest passions.

a photo of Rachel Chartoff from Birdseed Kitchen, circa May 1981

How Do You Food aspires to be not only a blog with great recipes, but also an educational website and culinary magazine. This is a destination for anyone who wants to…

  • get started with the right kitchen equipment
  • stock a pantry
  • learn more about seasonal produce
  • find a better way to cook a vegetable (even one that you think you don’t like!)
  • master a technique
  • explore stories of people connected with food

And of course, you’ll always find great recipes.

So let’s cook something – and learn something – together.

Ok, just a little more about me…

I live in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois – voted the Midwest’s Greatest Food Town by Midwest Living Magazine. I’m married to a most excellent saucier, my husband Noah. We have two boys in our house, ages 14 and 3. The modest amount of income I make from this site goes into feeding the teenager. (For real.)

  • My mom makes the best pie in the world. I did not inherit her natural talent for pastry. (Love ya, Pillsbury!)
  • I can’t live in a house without onions.
  • My oldest son is the Egg Master. He cooks a PERFECT basted over-easy egg, and a perfect poached egg.
  • My favorite restaurant in the entire world (that I have experienced, so far) is Del Posto in NYC. It’s the second out of three places that Noah proposed to me.
  • I’ll take salty snacks over sweet. (Got any olives?)
  • I own fewer than 50 pieces of clothing, and I’m trying to lower that number. (Aspiring minimalist here.)
  • I’ve been a website designer and developer for over 20 years. It makes the having-my-own-website thing a lot easier, and a lot more challenging.