Michelle Maisto has been writing about food since the second grade, when she penned a short story about an anxious grocery store tomato.

She has made desserts in a convalescent-home kitchen, hosted diners and waited tables, scooped thousands of cookies as a baker's assistant, poured and quaffed flights behind a wine bar, and sold pizzas at a racetrack concession stand — and still she was slow to realize that she has more than a normal interest in food. She has a BA from the University of New Hampshire, an MFA from Columbia University, blogs at TheMarketReport.net, and lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband, Rich.

The Gastronomy of Marriage is her first book.