Linda Civitello

Location: Los Angeles, California

Education: Vassar College, UCLA

A food historian who previously worked in the film industry, Linda paired movies and menus in the Dinner and a Movie column for Serious Eats.
She is the author of two books about food—Cuisine & Culture: a History of Food and People (2011) and Baking Powder Wars: The Cutthroat Food Fight That Revolutionized Cooking (2017)—and helped write the autobiography of Kirk Douglas.
Linda ate her way around the world while writing for the Guinness Book of World Records television shows.

Experience

Linda Civitello is an Italian-American food historian, author, writer, and film buff who contributed a column to Serious Eats called Dinner and a Movie. She earned both her Masters and PhD in History from UCLA, and has authored two award-winning books called Cuisine & Culture: a History of Food and People (2011) and Baking Powder Wars: The Cutthroat Food Fight That Revolutionized Cooking (2017). Her third book, still being written, is called Screen Cuisine: Food & Film From Prohibition to James Bond.

In addition to her writing, Linda has taught food history at a number of culinary schools, and pens a food history column for Edible Los Angeles. She’s also an accomplished pastry chef, and has a certificate in commercial ice cream production from Penn State.

Prior to her career in food, Linda worked in the film industry as an assistant to Al Pacino, an assistant director, researcher, and TV writer. She also helped Kirk Douglas in the writing of his autobiography, The Ragman’s Son.

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.

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