The Upstate is changing, and along with it, some slight changes are coming to TOWN. One small change is how we use this designated space. While we’ll continue to feature editor’s letters, we’ll also use the page to spotlight and share the voices of important members of our team, including editors, designers, and writers. This month, it’s an honor to introduce our food writers. It wouldn’t be a Food Issue—and it wouldn’t be TOWN—without our foodies.
—Charlotte Lucke, managing editor
Ruta Fox
I am a freelance writer who covers food, lifestyle, and travel. My work has appeared in Vanity Fair, USA Today, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, Health, Edible Upcountry, SELF, Healthy Aging, BELLA Magazine, atHome, vive, TOWN, and Women’s Health.
I’m a big city girl, and I was born and raised in Los Angeles, dwelled in Dallas, settled in Chicago, and recently spent 15 years living in New York City. I’m now south of the Mason-Dixon line, where I’m learning to love all things fried. From the charming town of Greenville, I also write about style and young entrepreneurs. Follow me on Instagram @rutafox.
Here’s a look at my Chadcuterie story from the December 2022 edition of TOWN.
Linda Lee
My food journey began in my native Virginia with my first visit to a farmers market, when I was in my twenties. I couldn’t explain why then, but it felt healthier eating produce freshly picked from the fields, and being able to chat with the farmers who grew it. To this day, a trip to the TD Market in downtown Greenville is the highlight of my summer Saturdays.
As a staff editor and writer for THE MICHELIN GUIDE, I traveled with Michelin inspectors to the first group of cities covered in the United States. Eating with the inspectors, I soaked up invaluable knowledge about food preparation and service—experience that lit my passion for writing about food.
These days, when I’m not chained to my PC, I love interviewing chefs—including those with Michelin stars—discovering new restaurants, and cooking at home. I also enjoy promoting good, clean, and fair food on the Slow Food Upstate board, and serving as an emeritus member of the board of euphoria.
Here’s a look at my Scout’s Doughnuts story from the December 2022 edition of TOWN.
Ariel Turner
One of my earliest food memories finds 6-year-old me hiding under my grandmother’s bed, stealthily peeling the plastic off of individually wrapped slices of Velveeta cheese and savoring each smooth, cold bite. Cheese of any variety was, for our family, a luxury item and a temptation I couldn’t resist. Imagine my surprise upon discovering decades later that my love for a particular low-budget processed dairy would be shared by some of the country’s most respected and celebrated chefs I’d interview.
A Greenville native, I shopped with my grandmother in the dusty aisles of the Cancellation Shoe Mart before it became Soby’s, and I learned to love the service industry as an employee of a few Greenville restaurants before and while earning a journalism degree. Arts writing for the Greenville Journal was my first job out of college in 2005, and in 2016, after living for almost a decade in the Philadelphia area, I returned to my hometown to connect my love for words, food, and the city who had also found her voice.
Here’s a look at my seasonal punch bowls story from the December 2022 edition of TOWN.
Photography by Jen Jefferson.
