MEDIA & PaRTNERSHIP INQUIRIES
Sarah Jane Coolahan | sarahjane.coolahan@two12.com
Read the Food Network Star press release here.
COVER ART:
SHORT BIO:
Jess Tom is the winner of Food Network Star and author of Food Whore: A Novel of Dining & Deceit, which has been published in seven different languages. As a food novelist and television personality, she brings her storytelling skills to her cooking, and her extensive food knowledge to her writing. She’s appeared on numerous Food Network shows, Good Morning America, the TODAY Show, the Epicurious Youtube channel, and more, and her writing has been featured in Eater, Buzzfeed, Entertainment Weekly, Popsugar, and the New York Times.
LONG BIO:
Jessica Tom is a writer and television personality living in the NYC area. She attended Yale University and graduated with a concentration in fiction writing, studying three years under Amy Bloom. She brings her storytelling skills to her cooking, and her extensive food knowledge to her writing. In 2015, she published her first novel, Food Whore: A Novel of Dining & Deceit (William Morrow/ HarperCollins). In 2018, she won season 14 of Food Network Star.
Post-graduation, Jess’s dynamic food-focused career encompassed consumer products, restaurants, corporate cafeterias, food trucks, and a citywide culinary program.
In 2013, her work received national attention when she authored 3rd Ward’s winning proposal for a $1.5 million grant from the City of Brooklyn for a culinary incubator. Jess concepted the 30,000 square foot space, planning facilities, classes, the pricing model and garnering letters of interest from food-world luminaries including Bev Eggleston, Anne Saxelby and Amanda Hesser. While at 3rd Ward, she also managed marketing, events and business development for two restaurant spaces (including Fitzcarraldo) and one food truck (Goods, cheffed by Alex McCrery, formerly of Commander’s Palace and the personal chef of the Seinfeld family). She created collaborations with numerous food businesses including The Meat Hook, Luke’s Lobster, the Umami Food and Art Festival, Red Bull, Tasting Table, and many more.
Jess has also served as the Senior Marketing Director at SevenRooms, a private booking platform and CRM for some of the world’s best restaurants and nightclubs (clients include Major Food Group, Altamarea Group, TAO/Strategic, Alain Ducasse, Nobu).
In addition, Jess has developed and marketed a meal delivery service and wine-of-the-month club, served as an incognito corporate cafeteria critic, and supplied rare seeds to Wylie Dufresne and Windfall Farms. At the request of Emeril Lagasse’s longtime production company, Jess interviewed celebrity chefs at Lee Schrager’s book party at Barneys New York. She first learned about the dynamics of restaurants when she immersed herself for two months at New Haven’s premier fine dining restaurant, Union League Cafe, for her food column in the Yale Daily News Magazine.
Jess considers cooking her craft, second to writing. She is an avid home cook and posts original recipes on her blog and Instagram. When writing Food Whore, Jess did extensive research by talking to friends in the industry, reading food blogs, cookbooks, restaurant reviews, menus and food-world memoirs, and -- of course -- dining out. She’s currently working on her second book -- also about food.