CANR
WORK TITLE: RUBY SPENCER’S WHISKY YEAR
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://www.rochellebilowwriting.com
CITY: Brooklyn
STATE:
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: CA 371
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born c. 1987.
EDUCATION:Le Moyne College, B.A., 2009; French Culinary Institute, grand diplome, 2010.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Aldea, New York, NY, intern, then line cook, 2010; freelance writer, 2008—; Greyrock Farm, Cazenovia, NY, community- supported agriculture (CSA) manager and full-time cook, 2012-13; Bon Appétit, New York, NY, associate Web editor, 2014—. Has also worked as a farmer, cook, and cooking instructor; frequent guest on the Morning AMp with Brian Babylon and Molly Adams radio program; has appeared in the Food Network’s Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives and Beat Bobby Flay television programs.
WRITINGS
Author of a column in CBS Man Cave Blog, Syracuse magazine and Syracuse Post-Standard; author of a travel guide for the city of Syracuse; contributor to Made Man, Tailgate Fan, Food Traveler, USA Today, New York Cork Report, Vocalo.org, YourTango.com, and Edible Finger Lakes.
SIDELIGHTS
Rochelle Bilow is a food writer. Born in the late 1980s, she graduated from Le Moyne College before completing a grand diplome in classic culinary arts from the French Culinary Institute in Manhattan in 2010. Bilow subsequently worked as a line cook at Michelin-starred restaurant Aldea but later focused her attention on writing full time. Bilow authored columns for CBS Man Cave Blog, Syracuse magazine and Syracuse Post-Standard, as well as penning a travel guide for the city of Syracuse. She has contributed to Made Man, Tailgate Fan, Food Traveler, USA Today, New York Cork Report, Vocalo.org, YourTango.com, Edible Finger Lakes, and began working as associate Web site editor of Bon Appétit in 2014. In an article in the Syracuse Post-Standard, she shared her philosophy on food: “Food and cooking for me is about more than just good flavors, ingredients and techniques. … It really is, for me, about sharing with people and how it makes you feel, about cooking for people or how it feels being cooked for. The two are inextricably linked.”
In a write-up on Bilow in PRWeb Newswire, the author talked about her excitement over being named the official Finger Lakes Wine & Food Ambassador in collaboration with the Finger Lakes Wine Country Tourism Marketing Association and the Finger Lakes Wine Alliance. Bilow mentioned that “the food of the Finger Lakes is exciting, unique, and evocative of the terroir,” adding: “Just like the perfectly- balanced wines. It’s a match made in heaven.” In the same article, Finger Lakes Wine Country president Morgen McLaughlin affirmed that “Rochelle’s person style and affinity for Finger Lakes wines and foods make her a perfect ambassador for the Finger Lakes.”
Bilow published her first book, The Call of the Farm: An Unexpected Year of Getting Dirty, Home Cooking, and Finding Myself: A Love Story, with Recipes, in 2014. The personal tale recounts the year she spent on the community-supported agriculture (CSA) program Greyrock Farm, located in central New York state, beginning in 2012. She quickly develops a crush on one of the farmers in the horse barn and goes through the process of learning how to balance work and life on a rural farm. As both farmer and farm cook, she learns everything from wrangling horses and growing vegetables to churning butter.
A contributor to the Reading on the Farm Web site admitted: “I know that this book was just an account of Rochelle’s year on the farm, but I felt the ending left me a little hanging. I was hoping to see how this year changed her life and how she decided what her next job would be or where she would” live. The contributor found that “overall though, this was a very enjoyable read about one person’s emotional and physical journey to understand the reality of food and love and taking a chance on doing something you love.” A contributor to Kirkus Reviews commented that “the book is not a page-turner, as Bilow offers readers a slow-cooked story, with tenderness and intermingled flavors enriched over time.” A Publishers Weekly contributor said that the book contained a “lively and descriptive narrative.” The same contributor concluded by calling The Call of the Farm “a lively, charming coming-of-age story complete with farm-tested recipes.”
A contributor to the Walden Effect Web site cautioned readers about the “strong language and moderately explicit sex,” appending that “the ending might depress you as much as it did me.” The same reviewer conceded, however: “Those caveats aside, The Call of the Farm is poised to become one of those must-read homesteading books of 2014.” In an article in New York’s Ithaca Times, Bill Chaisson remarked that “the style of writing is chatty and readable, which works well when she is describing the details of slaughtering meat chickens, learning how to churn butter, or describing a seedling planting operation. But it founders when she moves into trying to make the personal relationships in the book come alive. None of the other farm workers emerge as a complete personality.” In a review in Library Journal, Erin Shea claimed that “foodies and wannabe farmers will love this memoir and will root for Bilow.”
<start.new>In 2023, Bilow published her first novel, Ruby Spencer’s Whisky Year. The story, set in Scotland, features a Manhattan-based food writer (the eponymous Ruby Spencer) who decides to reset herself and her career by relocating for twelve months to a randomly-chosen small town north of the English border. She chooses the town of Thistlecross as the venue for her to finally settle down and write the cookbook that has been percolating in the back of her mind for years. “This,” declared a Publishers Weekly reviewer, “should have plenty of appeal for armchair travelers.”
But Thistlecross has its own distractions for the aspiring writer, ranging from the broken-down cottage she is renting, to Brochan Wood, the handyman who appears at regular intervals with his large bag of tools to fix whatever has broken down, to the Cosy Hearth, the local pub. Ruby and Brochan bond over their love of whisky, and soon their professional relationship seems to be developing into something more. But then Ruby learns that a developer with mysterious ties to Brochan has plans to buy the Cosy Hearth and turn it into an ultra-trendy gastropub chain restaurant. It falls upon Ruby and Brochan to save the day. “Bilow has written a romance that should be savored slowly,” concluded a contributor to Kirkus Reviews, “if only to thoroughly appreciate her poetic prose and immersive sense of place.”<end.new>
BIOCRIT
BOOKS
Bilow, Rochelle, The Call of the Farm: An Unexpected Year of Getting Dirty, Home Cooking, and Finding Myself: A Love Story, with Recipes, Experiment (New York, NY), 2014.
PERIODICALS
Dolphin (Le Moyne College), October 9, 2014, Matthew Clark, “Rochelle Bilow Comes Home to the Heights.”
Ithaca Times (Ithaca, NY), December 30, 2014, Bill Chaisson, review of The Call of the Farm.
Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 2014, review of The Call of the Farm; January 1, 2023, review of Ruby Spencer’s Whisky Year.
Library Journal, October 20, 2014, Erin Shea, review of The Call of the Farm.
PRWeb Newswire, September 1, 2011, “Finger Lakes Wine Country and Finger Lakes Wine Alliance Announce Rochelle Bilow as Finger Lakes Wine & Food Ambassador.”
Publishers Weekly, July 28, 2014, review of The Call of the Farm, p. 81; October 3, 2022, review of Ruby Spencer’s Whiskey Year, p. 141.
Syracuse Post- Standard, September 30, 2014, Don Cazentre, “Love and Cooking on a CNY Farm.”
ONLINE
Muck Rack, http:// muckrack.com/ (January 31, 2015), author profile.
New York Cork Report, http://newyorkcorkreport.com/ (September 5, 2011), Lenn Thompson, author profile.
Reading on the Farm, http://readingonthefarm.com/ (September 22, 2014), review of Call of the Farm.
Rochelle Bilow website, https://www.rochellebilowwriting.com (January 27, 2023), author profile.
Serious Eats, https://www.seriouseats.com/ (January 27, 2023), author profile.
Walden Effect, http:// www.waldeneffect.org/ (July 6, 2014), review of The Call of the Farm.*
Rochelle Bilow is a romance writer, food writer, and writer writer. She is a graduate of The French Culinary Institute and has worked as a baker, a line cook, and the social media manager for Bon Appétit and Cooking Light magazines. Her articles about home cooking, restaurants, food news and trends, spirits, groceries, and products have been published in a variety of national publications, including: Eating Well, Food & Wine, Serious Eats, The Kitchn, and The Spruce Eats.
Rochelle’s first book, a romantic farming memoir titled The Call of the Farm, was published by The Experiment in 2014.
Ruby Spencer’s Whisky Year, her second book—and fiction debut—will be published by Berkley Romance in February 2023.
Rochelle lives in northern Vermont. Her favorite food is buttery toast.
food writing.
It isn’t just recipes and cooking tips.
It’s about storytelling. Helping people become more joyful, efficient, and clever in the kitchen. It’s about nostalgia and new memories; trying something new and learning from other people. Food writing is shopping for the prettiest linen napkins; it’s testing every whisk on the market to figure out which is the best one (GIR’s Ultimate Whisk, btw.) It’s talking to chefs and translating their skill set for the general public. Food writing is sometimes about gardening; sometimes it’s about grocery shopping. It’s about composting and leftovers and (ugh!) doing the dishes.
I’ve had the pleasure of working with some of the nation’s most trusted food and cooking magazines and websites. Here’s a glimpse at my work across brands.
And P.S.: If you’re interested in working together, or have a cool kitchen-y brand I should know about, you can contact me here.
Rochelle Bilow
Rochelle's headshot
Location: Stowe, Vermont
Education: Le Moyne College, The French Culinary Institute
Rochelle Bilow is a freelance food writer, as well as a novelist. Based in Vermont, Rochelle specializes in stories about home cooking, techniques, tools, and equipment. She has been writing about food professionally for over a decade.
Highlights:
Rochelle is a food writer and novelist.
She is based in Vermont.
She was a social media manager for Bon Appétit and Cooking Light Magazines.
Experience
Rochelle is a freelance food writer based in Vermont.
Education
Rochelle holds a B.A. in Communications from Le Moyne College, as well as a Grande Diplome in Classic Culinary Arts from the French Culinary Institute (now a part of the Institute of Culinary Education).
About Serious Eats
Serious Eats, a Dotdash brand, is an award-winning food and drink website visited by over 7 million hungry readers every month. Our audience comes to us for rigorously tested recipes, science-driven cooking techniques, robust equipment reviews, and stories that offer cultural and historical context to the foods we love to eat.
Dotdash is among the largest and fastest growing publishers online, and has won over 50 awards in the last year alone, including Digiday's 2020 Publisher of the Year. Dotdash brands include Verywell, Investopedia, The Balance, The Spruce, Simply Recipes, Serious Eats, Byrdie, Brides, MyDomaine, Lifewire, TripSavvy, Liquor.com, and TreeHugger.
Rochelle Bilow
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Woman in a white dress with stripes sitting in the grass
Rochelle Bilow
Title: Food Writer, Author
Location: Syracuse, New York
Rochelle Bilow is a graduate of the French Culinary Institute, and the former social media manager at Bon Appétit and Cooking Light magazines. She has also worked as a cook on a small farm in Central New York and a Michelin-starred restaurant in New York City. Her first book, a food and farming memoir titled The Call of the Farm, was published in 2014. Her second book, a romance novel set in Scotland, will be published in February 2023.
About The Spruce Eats
The Spruce Eats, a Dotdash brand, is a food and drink website offering more than 15,000 tested recipes, 1,200 how-to videos, informative articles, trustworthy product recommendations, and the inspiration to help you make your best meal. Learn more about us and our editorial process.
Bilow, Rochelle RUBY SPENCER'S WHISKY YEAR Berkley (Fiction None) $10.99 2, 14 ISBN: 978-0-593-54788-5
A wayward food writer packs up her life and moves to Scotland, finding romance and purpose where she least expects it.
Ruby Spencer can't believe she's actually gone through with it--at 35, she's ditched her Manhattan apartment and flown across the ocean to live in a tiny Scottish town for a year. Settling down in the charmingly named Thistlecross was definitely an impulse decision, but Ruby hopes it will give her the inspiration she needs to produce the cookbook she's always wanted to write. The small cottage she's renting may be a bit of a fixer-upper, but the Cosy Hearth--the pub down the street--and its loyal occupants win her over almost instantly. Those occupants definitely include Brochan Wood, the handsome flannel-wearing repairman who finds every excuse to stop by Ruby's cottage with his tools. Ruby and Brochan bond over everything they have in common, like their love of whisky, as well as their differences, and what starts out as a fun, breathless fling becomes more serious and meaningful for both of them. To make the situation more complicated, Ruby finds out that the Cosy Hearth is at risk of disappearing to make way for a chain restaurant whose owner has unique ties to Brochan and his past. Bilow has written a romance that should be savored slowly, if only to thoroughly appreciate her poetic prose and immersive sense of place. While the third-act conflict may leave a little to be desired in terms of on-page resolution, the novel succeeds through the warm moments revolving around the community Ruby stumbles into making for herself.
A charming, lyrical debut about love and self-discovery.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Bilow, Rochelle: RUBY SPENCER'S WHISKY YEAR." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Jan. 2023, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A731562275/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=c7ef1786. Accessed 12 Jan. 2023.
Ruby Spencer's Whiskey Year
Rochelle Bilow. Berkley, $17 trade paper (368p) ISBN 978-0-593-54788-5
Chef Bilow's foodie romance (after the memoir The Call of the Farm) takes some time to hit its groove. Having thrown a dart at a map of Scotland, burned-out New York City food writer Ruby Spenser moves ro the charming town of Thistlecross in search of a new start and inspiration for a cookbook. In the meantime, she'll work with Grace, an older woman who manages the town's too-quiet pub and from whom Ruby rents a quaint cottage. Ruby feels a connection to the pub and the village immediately--and becomes even more invested when she meets Brochan, the handsome handyman who fixes up her rental. While sampling whisky together against some quintessentially Scottish backdrops, Brochan slowly opens up to Ruby. When the pair learn that family drama threatens the pub's future--and by extension, the fate of Thistlecross itself--they must put their heads together to save the town. The overly expositional opening keeps readers at arms' length emotionally, but the narrative picks up steam once Ruby joins the community, and her passion for her new life in Scotland makes her easier to connect with by the end. This should have plenty of appeal for armchair travelers. Agent: Sharon Pelletier, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. (Feb.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Ruby Spencer's Whiskey Year." Publishers Weekly, vol. 269, no. 41, 3 Oct. 2022, p. 141. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A721992747/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=0a62a443. Accessed 12 Jan. 2023.