Rina Rapuano jumped from newspaper editing to food writing when she realized every meal description to friends ended with someone declaring, “You’re making me hungry.” While on staff at Washingtonian magazine’s dining section for four years, she ate her way through cuisines spanning the globe for Cheap Eats packages, fretted about gout each year while working on the 100 Very Best Restaurants package and covered food trends in addition to writing a regular column for the magazine. She later spent more than four years immersed in Washington, D.C.’s restaurant scene as the city editor for Zagat.
As a freelancer, she has written for USA Today’s GoEscape magazine, Food Network, Michelin and TLCme.com, among many others. Her focus has mainly been food, travel and lifestyles — but she has covered everything from square-dancing to museums to seniors with HIV/AIDS. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband and two children, plus her dog and cat. She can usually be found in the kitchen sneaking a cookie.