Chandra Ram is a first-generation American who learned to love cooking from her Irish mother and Indian father. She has a degree in culinary arts from the Culinary Institute of America and spent 15 years working in restaurants and as a consulting chef before turning to food writing. She is the editor of the award-winning food magazine Plate and coauthor of The Eiffel Tower Restaurant Cookbook and Korean BBQ: Master Your Grill in Seven Sauces. She has been a featured food expert on the Cooking Channel, and in CS magazine and the Chicago Tribune. Chandra lives in Chicago.