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As the Test Kitchen Director of Dotdash Meredith Food Studios, ICE alumna Katie Barreira was at one point overseeing testing and development for as many as 6,400 recipes in a year — that worked out, on average, to 25 recipes per business day. Part of testing and developing those recipes was tasting them. 

It was a tough job, but someone had to do it. [Insert envious sarcasm here.] 

Barreira set her sights on a career in food media early on, but her path to becoming a Test Kitchen Director for the country’s largest print and digital publisher was anything but linear. After graduating from ICE with a diploma in Culinary Arts and working jobs in restaurant kitchens, private kitchens, and food writing over several years, Barreira found the perfect synergy of cooking and writing in the test kitchens of magazines like Cook’s Illustrated and Every Day with Rachel Ray.

In 2015, Barreira became the founding Test Kitchen Director of Dotdash Meredith Food Studios, producing recipe content for print and digital publications like AllRecipes.com, Food & Wine, Southern Living, Real Simple and People. There, she managed a 20-person team of recipe developers, project managers and editors. She also developed a groundbreaking business model for magazine test kitchens that continues to shape the modern food media landscape.

In 2022, Barreira left her full-time job to take on a more flexible freelance schedule and focus on family life.

“It’s been challenging to step away from work and my professional identity,” she acknowledged.

Still, as any culinary school graduate can attest, cooking is a versatile, lifelong skill that never loses its edge: “I’m looking forward to my second act,” Barreira said.

ICE caught up with Barreira to relive some of her favorite professional memories. Along the way, she shared excellent advice for anyone considering a career in food media. 

* The following interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

ICE: What do you consider your biggest professional achievements?

Katie Barreira: There was the graphic novel-style Thanksgiving feature that I wrote for Every Day with Rachael Ray in which an anthropomorphized turkey goes to the spa for some pampering (think aromatic salt scrub and a yoga class to get those wings bound) before she hits the holiday table. That was a crowning achievement. And proof that work really can be fun!

Later in my career, it was a big accomplishment to formulate a new model for published recipes. Before the Dotdash Meredith Food Studios existed, every magazine that created in-house recipe content had its own test kitchen. We were among the first to hub recipe development, testing, food styling and photography for an entire publishing company’s portfolio of brands under one roof. Our six-person team created a streamlined workflow and org structure for high volume food content creation that preserved quality while significantly cutting costs, allowing us to continue to do what we loved in an industry that was operating with very different economics.

ICE: To what factors do you attribute your success thus far?

KB: Being on great teams. Who you work with matters as much as the job, sometimes more. Seeing change coming and making myself an integral part of transitions, rather than a roadblock. And getting excited about doing things well, even if they aren’t my favorite things. You are not going to enjoy every single aspect of your work, no matter how much you love what you do.

ICE: When did food become something that you wanted to pursue professionally?

KB: I always loved food. My mom was a terrific cook and we were the kind of family that planned vacations around meals. But I didn’t consider food as a career until college, when I studied for a semester in San Francisco. The students all lived in a house in Pacific Heights and there was a private chef. He would show up with arm loads of groceries from local markets. I often sat at the kitchen island and chatted while he cooked. He owned a flower shop and did some food styling work on the side of his chef gig. I saw that a “career” didn’t have to be such a linear thing.

I would write emails home to my parents telling them about my life, but mostly about what I was eating. I don’t remember them, but I guess they were entertaining, because my parents were like, “maybe this is what you should be writing about!”

After I graduated, I started trying out lots of different ways to work with food and writing. I worked on the line in restaurants. I took a Harvard extension school class on food writing taught by Sheryl Julian who was then the Boston Globe’s food editor. I wrote restaurant reviews for a free newspaper in a small town. I joined a personal chef service and cooked for people in their homes. But it wasn’t until I interned at Cook’s Illustrated that I found my home: test kitchens. There, all my favorite parts of the things I had been “trying on” came together in one place.

ICE: What drew you to food media specifically? Why did you feel like a culinary degree would help you on that career path?

KB: Food media combined something I was good at (writing) with something I really enjoyed (food). Until that point, I had the famous writer’s problem — “I hate to write, but I love having written.” Writing about food made the process of writing fun. I almost got a master’s in journalism, but a wise elder told me I could learn journalism on the job and that I should go become an expert in the thing I wanted to write about. So, I went to culinary school.

ICE: What does a typical day look like for you now? And what do you love most about your work?

KB: Today, I’m private cheffing for a family of four. Whether I’m researching a dish or investigating the Medicaid waiver process for my youngest daughter, it invigorates me to understand things deeply and do them well. As I’ve gotten more life under my belt, the adage “do what you love” has shifted to, “do something that matters to you.”

ICE: What would you say to people looking to follow a career path similar to yours?

KB: Get digital media skills and credentials under your belt. Even if you want to write heady essays that will land you in the next anthology of “Best Food Writing,” expose yourself to some data analytics. Find out where people who do what you want to do end up in their careers if they are successful. Don’t ever get so ingrained in one way of doing things that you can’t imagine another way because at some point you’ll have to. Failing is part of it. We’re clear on this for kids — if you’re not failing, you’re not learning — but really hard on ourselves about it as adults.

ICE: When you think of ICE, what is the first word that pops into your mind?

KB: Practical. It’s not the sexiest word, but ICE takes a realistic approach to culinary education and job placement that makes it accessible and effective for students.

ICE: Before you enrolled, what was it about ICE that suggested it was a good fit for you?

KB: I had already worked on the line at fine dining restaurants in Boston, and while I liked it, I knew I didn’t want that to be my career path. At the time, ICE was the only culinary school that would allow and facilitate an externship in food media. Plus, the flexible class schedules meant I could pursue work while obtaining my culinary degree.

ICE: Transitioning out of culinary school, was that easy? Did you learn things at ICE that advanced your career?

KB: The foundational food and cooking knowledge was indispensable, but the most valuable part of my ICE experience was the opportunity to connect with people in the food media industry. I did my ICE externship at Food & Wine. At an Illy press lunch, I sat next to an editor from Every Day with Rachael Ray who remembered me from my externship and told me they were just breaking ground on a test kitchen. Next thing I knew, I was interviewing for their Test Kitchen Assistant position. It helped that I recognized there was no prescribed career path for food media. I knew I had to pursue every avenue.

ICE: How do you use mentorship, which is a value that most chefs and people in the industry really care about, especially at a culinary school?

KB: During my time in the Every Day with Rachael Ray test kitchen, I was lucky to have a roster of talented externs from ICE (looking at you, Esther Choi!) who wanted to break into food media. The test kitchen could not have functioned without their work, and I definitely felt a responsibility to pay it forward. Externships are really a two-way street.

One of my early mentors is someone I cold-called asking if I could pick their brain. You never know which conversation is going to change your course, and there will be many that yield nothing. Now, I always try to carve out real time for people who reach out to me.

ICE: Do you have any advice for those considering culinary school?

KB: Sign-up for every Beard House gig that you can. That is to say, take advantage of every opportunity to work and connect with people in the industry.
 

QUICKFIRE QUESTIONS 

Favorite kitchen tool? Old school hand-crank beater. People at my house like fresh whipped cream with their strawberries and fluffy egg whites in their waffles. I like not having to find parts and plug-in for something that takes two minutes to make.

Salty or sweet? Was solidly team salty my whole life, but in the past couple years I’ve been creeping towards sweet.

Favorite food holiday? Thanksgiving. Obvious, but true.

Favorite food city? So far, Modena would be up there.

On order of preference: cook, bake, eat? Eat (because I’m always less hungry after I cook). Cook. Bake (details, details).

Favorite cuisine? Nearly impossible to choose. Can I say “Mediterranean” and get Greek, Israeli, and Sicilian all in there?

Go-to “easy” recipe? Dunk a spoonful of crunchy peanut butter into a bowl of Ghirardelli semi-sweet chips. Get it nice and coated. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt. Eat from spoon while standing over kitchen sink.

Go-to “wow” recipe? In my family, I am famous for Pam Lolley’s “Pam-cake” recipe from Southern Living. That’s totally cool with me because they are the best pancakes I have ever eaten, and Pam is one of the best bakers I’ve ever worked with. Also try her King Cake recipe.

Most frequently used non pantry essential ingredient? Eggs.

Summer, spring, fall or winter: which is your favorite food season? Summer.
  

* Photo courtesy of Robin Bashinsky