Carolyn Jung is an award-winning food and wine writer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is the recipient of a James Beard Award for feature writing about restaurants/chefs, a Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism award of excellence for diversity writing, an award from the American Association of Sunday and Features Editors, and numerous first-place honors from the Association of Food Journalists, and the Peninsula Press Club. In 2015, she was named an IACP finalist for “narrative food writing.”

She has judged a bevy of food contests, including the biggie of them all, the Pillsbury Bake-Off.

For 11 years, she was the food writer/editor for the San Jose Mercury News. She also was a contributor to the “Good Living” section of Gourmet magazine, and to the book, “The Slow Food Guide to San Francisco and the Bay Area.”

Over the years, her work on other topics has been published in the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, the Boston Globe, and the Portland Oregonian.

Currently, she is a freelance food writer. Her work has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco magazine, Silicon Valley magazine, EatingWell, Nob Hill Gazette, Coastal Living, Food Arts, Wine Spectator, Every Day with Rachael Ray, Plate magazine, Via magazine, East Bay Express, Oakland magazine, Alameda magazine, Edible Marin & Wine Country, Edible Silicon Valley, and other publications, including the online site, Tasting Table San Francisco. She ghost-writes and tests recipes for cookbook authors, as well as develops recipes for the Anova immersion circulator company. She lends expertise as a food industry/food trend consultant. In 2009, she served as a judge for the James Beard Foundation Cookbook Awards. Additionally, she hosts and helps coordinate chef cooking demos at Macy’s.

Her first cookbook, “San Francisco Chef’s Table” (Lyons Press), was published in winter 2013. Her second cookbook, “East Bay Cooks” (Figure 1 Publishing), debuted in September 2019.

In 2008, she created FoodGal.com, a food and wine blog that features interviews with celebrated chefs, reviews of intriguing cookbooks and products, the scoop on new restaurants, irresistible recipes, and her singular take on how food touches every aspect of our lives. In 2009, her blog was awarded second place for “Best Food Blog” in the nation by the Association of Food Journalists.

A native San Franciscan, she’s always been passionate about food — from the rarefied, breathtaking cuisine at the French Laundry in Yountville and the intricate morsels of dim sum at Yank Sing in San Francisco, to the soul-satisfying fish tacos at Sancho’s Taqueria in Palo Alto and the outrageously buttery kouign-amanns at B. Patisserie in San Francisco. She’s obsessed with all things ginger, almond paste, and chocolate. And she’s a sucker for a well-made cookie.