Jacqueline Raposo

Disabled food writer Jacqueline Raposo once penned so many interview-based features, event reviews, and ingredient stories for Serious Eats that her editors titled her their Chef Whisperer. Now, she features American war veterans, disabled hospitality folk, and chefs doing good for print and podcast clients including iHeartRadio, Plate, Saveur, Food & Wine, Town & Country, VICE Munchies, Vinepair, Epicurious, and more.

Jacqueline has a Bachelor's Degree in Fine Arts and has taught and coached writing and speaking with children and adults in New York City, Cincinnati, and Galway, Ireland. Within the hospitality world, she's worked as a bartender, restaurant hostess, editorial assistant to the editor of a gluten-free magazine, food stylist, food styling assistant, private chef, gluten-free recipe consultant, and recipe developer and tester.

She has also penned several years of Workman's Kitchen Companion calendar, hosted a series of gluten-free baking videos for E:How Foods, and ran the blog TheDustyBaker.com, sharing hundreds of gluten-free recipes. She is a contributor to Johnny Iuzzini's Sugar Rush and the author of The Me, Without: A Year of Exploring Habit, Healing, and Happiness (2019).

What's your desert island food?

"If I were literally on a boat and that boat literally capsized, chances are I'd have Cape Cod 40% Reduced-Fat* Potato Chips on me because I almost always do. For decades, medical advice for people with my auto-immune illness was to not eat white potatoes and so I didn't. Then, I discovered via some serious sleuthing that not only did potato chips not hurt my body, but they actually help—when the world goes tipsy, potato chips deliver carbs and salt super-fast so I do not spin out. They're my little food BFFs. We shall never be 'twain again.

*I don't care about the fat content part -- these particular chips have the perfect crunch-to-salt ratio. I have done my research."

What's your favorite condiment?

"Mayonnaise and Portuguese crushed pepper.

"Sir Kensington's is really creamy with a lemony kick and Kewpie has the umami-punch I love for my super-gluttonous breakfast fry-ups—so they're worthy of a 'favorite' alone. But mayo's also the ideal vessel for carrying other flavors, so I usually mix it with this red pepper sauce I've been eating since ... I was eating. It's just crushed red peppers with vinegar and a little salt, but, with its particular balance of heat and tang, it's exactly what I want. It's found throughout 'the continent' (as we say) of Portugal, but is especially common in the Azores islands, where my dad's family is from. There, it's always served alongside soft goat cheese (amongst other things), so the move to mayo isn't that far off flavor-wise. Stateside, my dad buys it in gallons from the Portuguese market and divides it amongst his kids. I dot my plate with mayo and the pepper and then slather them together on eggs, roasted veggies, cooked meat—everywhere. It tastes like home in a way that only certain foods can."