Get to know the editorial team behind Taste of Home's magazine, books and website.
Taste of Home‘s editors are proud to be home cooks and entertainers, just like you. With backgrounds in journalism, the culinary arts and the restaurant industry, we’re passionate about discovering the very best recipes and products, exploring the latest trends and sharing those “a-ha!” cooking tips that make getting dinner on the table that much easier.
The Taste of Home Digital Team
Ellie Martin Cliffe
Brand Content Director
A member of lifestyle media since the mid-aughts, Ellie Martin Cliffe joined the Taste of Home team in 2010 and has since edited and written for books, special interest publications, the flagship magazine and the website. These days, she leads the growing team of editors and pros, sharing tasty recipes, no-fail cooking tips and entertaining inspiration. Gluten- and dairy-free since 2017, Ellie’s a staff go-to on allergy-friendly foods.
If you don’t find her tapping away at her laptop, look for Ellie in her family’s urban veggie garden, at her sewing machine or at the nearest hockey rink.
Favorite Taste of Home recipe: Gluten-Free Potato Salad
Rachel Vigoda
Deputy Editor
Rachel Vigoda joined the Taste of Home team in 2020 after several years of writing about food, travel and entertainment for a variety of newspapers and magazines. She ran the Philadelphia site for Eater and wrote Moon Pennsylvania, a travel guidebook from publisher Avalon Travel. Now, when Rachel isn’t tracking culinary trends and leading the TOH digital team, you can find her experimenting with vegan recipes, checking out new restaurants and sprinting to the beach.
Favorite Taste of Home recipe: Macaroni Pie
Lindsay Mattison
Senior Editor
Lindsay Mattison joined the Taste of Home team as a food writer and now works as a senior editor, where she helps shape content to inspire home cooks. Her passion for food began in culinary school, and she brings a wealth of culinary expertise from her time as an executive chef at a farm-to-table restaurant. She loves simplifying complex cooking tasks and making techniques clear and approachable, whether it’s mastering a perfectly seared steak or making restaurant-worthy pizza dough.
When she’s not editing or writing, you’ll find her cooking with produce from her local farmers market or planning a trip to discover the best new restaurants.
Favorite Taste of Home recipe: Cacio e Pepe
Emily Racette Parulski
Senior Editor, Newsletters and Promotions
Emily Racette Parulski manages Taste of Home’s newsletter team and leads Bakeable, our baking community. She graduated from Bradley University and has been writing and editing food and lifestyle content for over a decade. When she’s not working, she can be found in her kitchen baking something sweet, taking a wine class or enjoying a scoop of frozen custard somewhere in Milwaukee.
Favorite Taste of Home recipe: Dutch Oven Bread
Rosie Siefert
Senior Editor, Trends
As senior editor, Rosemary Siefert manages Taste of Home’s wonderful community of freelancers. She assigns, edits and writes content about food trends, culinary techniques, cooking tips and all things baked goods. Rosie’s degrees in journalism and English from the University of Missouri lend to her skills as an editor, while her love for trying new recipes and learning new kitchen hacks shines in her writing.
If Rosie isn’t making a (fun) mess in the kitchen, she’s out and about in Chicago, holed up at a coffee shop with a book or clanging away on one of the typewriters in her collection.
Favorite Taste of Home recipe: Dubai Chocolate Cheesecake Bars
Lesley Balla
Editor
Lesley Balla joined the Taste of Home team in 2022 to help track trends and write and update digital content. After working in the hospitality and beverage industry, she found herself reporting on it for almost two decades, covering local food and wine scenes for print and digital publications, highlighting both famous and unsung heroes, and featuring new travel destinations. When not at her desk, you’ll probably find Lesley hitting local farm stands, baking something delicious at home or road-tripping around the Pacific Northwest with her husband and pup, Pucci.
Favorite Taste of Home recipe: Cheese-Herb Potato Fans
Lauren Pahmeier
Editor
Lauren Pahmeier focuses on search engine optimization for Taste of Home, making sure that readers can find all the recipes and other food-related content they need. She loves collaborating with the Test Kitchen to polish up old recipes with new tips and photos, while also creating assignments, writing articles and contributing toward other SEO-related efforts. While studying for her bachelor’s degree in professional journalism from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, she served as the co-founder and editor of her school’s chapter of Spoon University, and since then has freelanced for Eater Twin Cities.
Outside of work, Lauren hunts down the newest restaurants, specialty coffees and most indulgent desserts wherever she goes, while simultaneously practicing her food photography for @_whatsforsupper_, where she documents her favorite food finds.
Favorite Taste of Home recipe: Roasted Pumpkin Nachos
Melissa Gaman
Updates Editor
Having spent much of her career as a recipe developer for magazines, cookbooks and national brands, Melissa Gaman brings that culinary knowledge and hands-on experience to editing recipes and recipe collections for Taste of Home. She loves to infuse helpful tips into the content, so every home cook feels confident trying a new dish. She received a Bachelor of Arts in English literature from Columbia University and a diploma in Culinary Arts from The Institute of Culinary Education in New York City. The combination has shaped her career and brings authenticity to her editing and writing.
Melissa is a passionate baker. She loves to tinker with cookie recipes in search of the best chocolate chip cookie and bake sourdough from her beloved, well-aged sourdough starter, Bella Dough-na. When she’s not in the kitchen, you can find Melissa cycling on her Peloton through the latest power zone challenge, playing games with her son or working through an ever-growing list of must-read novels. She will never live down misspelling vanilla during the finals of her fourth grade spelling bee.
Favorite Taste of Home recipe: Glazed Maple Shortbread Cookies
Caroline Stanko
Updates Editor
Caroline Stanko spends her days pitching, writing and editing recipe content for Taste of Home. Caroline got her start in the publishing world as an editorial intern for TOH while earning her bachelor’s in writing-intensive English from Marquette University. You can also find her byline at U.S. News & World Report, Family Handyman and Reader’s Digest.
When she’s not typing away at a keyboard, Caroline spends her time mixing up a killer cocktail, practicing yoga or burning through her to-be-read list.
Favorite Taste of Home recipe: Best Ever Chili
Ivis Estrada
Associate Community Editor
Ivis Estrada is an associate community editor for Taste of Home, where she oversees the Community Cooks program and helps create newsletters featuring our delicious recipes. She loves trying new recipes and came to truly enjoy cooking when the pandemic started. She’s found a passion in re-creating copycat recipes and exploring meat-alternative dishes.
Ivis graduated with a journalism degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she was a contributing writer in the lifestyle section for MODA Magazine. Since graduating, Ivis has worked in marketing, curating newsletters, managing social media accounts and writing blog posts. Outside of work, you can find her obsessing over her dog or binge-watching classic movies.
Favorite Taste of Home recipe: Copycat Zuppa Toscana
Val Goodrich
Food Writer
Val Goodrich is a food writer at Taste of Home. She channels her experience from the Culinary Institute of America and stints at a handful of bakeries into her daily work. She’s usually typing away at her desk in Philadelphia, but otherwise, you can find her planning her next trip, using her ice cream maker or filling her basket at the farmers market.
Favorite Taste of Home recipe: Pumpkin Ice Cream
Lindsay Parrill
Trends Writer
Lindsay Parrill is the Trends Writer at Taste of Home, where she covers what’s trending in food—from celebrity chef recipes to the internet’s next kitchen obsession. Her work has also appeared in The San Francisco Chronicle, The Manual and Food & Wine.
When she’s not tracking down the latest viral dish, Lindsay’s probably chasing her two pugs (or her next glass of wine) along the breathtaking Oregon coastline.
Favorite Taste of Home recipe: French Chocolate Cake
The Taste of Home Affiliate Team
Katie Bandurski
Deputy Editor, Affiliate
As Taste of Home’s deputy affiliate editor, Katie connects readers with the best gifts, kitchen gear and home items on the market. An avid foodie and a holiday enthusiast, Katie is an expert at cultivating meaningful moments. It is her personal mission to help readers find quality products that will make their lives easier and more joyful. She has personally tested hundreds of products, ranging from Christmas trees to coffee gear and, of course, cookware.
Before joining the shopping team, Katie worked as a digital staff writer at Better Homes & Gardens and on the Taste of Home editorial team. She has over eight years of experience in the home and food space. When she’s out of the office, you’ll find her exploring Wisconsin with her husband, trying out new vegetarian recipes and watching Christmas movies.
Favorite Taste of Home recipe: Strawberry Rhubarb Cheesecake Bars
Mary Henn
Affiliate Editor
Mary Henn is a national award-winning writer and journalist who covers lifestyle topics, focusing on home, trends, food and drink. Before joining Taste of Home, she worked behind the scenes in Kansas City restaurants, reporting on the local food scene—an experience that sparked her love for kitchen tools and gadgets. She recently inherited a collection of old cookbooks, recipe cards and grocery receipts that belonged to her grandmother and great-grandmother. She’s currently preserving the collection and reimagining some of the recipes with a modern twist.
Mary holds an MA in Writing from Missouri State University and an MFA in Creative Writing and Media Arts from the University of Missouri–Kansas City. As a shopping editor, she has tested hundreds of products for Taste of Home, Family Handyman and Reader’s Digest. When she’s not covering the latest home and food finds, she’s likely reading poetry or spending time outdoors with her family.
Favorite Taste of Home recipe: Caramel Thumbprint Cookies
Emily Way
Affiliate Editor
A high school trip to Europe sparked Emily Way’s interest in worldly foods. Now, she spends her time in her Michigan kitchen exploring different cuisines with her husband. Emily is almost as passionate about buy-it-for-life home and kitchen gear as she is about her two cats, Nancy and Chi-Chi. When she isn’t in the kitchen, you can usually find her cozying up with the latest mystery novels.
As a former sales and deals editor, she now lends her bargain-hunting prowess to the Taste of Home shopping team as affiliate editor. In 2017, Emily graduated from Central Michigan University with a Creative Writing degree. You can also find her bylines in Family Handyman and Reader’s Digest.
Favorite Taste of Home recipe: Cupcake Cones
The Taste of Home Print Team
Mark Hagen
Content Director, Print
The former owner of a catering business, Mark Hagen has been part of the Taste of Home team for the past 24 years. A comfort-food junkie, he has written for Quick Cooking, Light & Tasty and Country Woman magazines, in addition to working on various projects for Emeril Lagasse, Rachael Ray, Pillsbury and Betty Crocker. When he’s not spending time in the kitchen, he’s likely working in his yard, doing stand-up comedy, acting or devouring a platter of nachos. (Most likely the latter.)
Favorite Taste of Home recipe: Blend of the Bayou
Julie Schnittka
Deputy Editor
Julie Schnittka is the editor of Taste of Home magazine and Taste of Home‘s special interest newsstand publications. She became a foodie when she first started with the brand in the 1990s and helped launch the cookbook department. Julie’s passion for trying new recipes with family and friends is evidenced by her ever-growing, bulging file of printouts that she intends to get through one day. When off the clock, she enjoys cooking (of course!), reading, biking, playing card games (Sheepshead, anyone?) and walking the family puggle, Howie.
Favorite Taste of Home recipe: Chicken Cheese Lasagna
Christine Rukavena
Senior Editor
Christine Rukavena loves to read, curate, sample and develop new recipes as a senior book editor at Taste of Home. A Culinary Institute of America alumna with honors, she creates cookbooks and food-related content. A favorite part of the job is taste-testing dishes. Previous positions include pastry chef at a AAA Five Diamond property. Christine moonlights at a boutique wine shop, where she edits marketing pieces and samples wine far higher than her pay grade.
Favorite Taste of Home recipe: Parmesan-Coated Brie
Want to join our team? Look for openings on Trusted Media Brands’ careers page.
