ReadThe Portobello Bookshop Gift Guide 2025

Liz Tarpy Author

Vivian Jao has more than two decades of experience as a chef, recipe developer, food stylist, caterer, and culinary producer. A former director of the test kitchen at Saveur and regular columnist for Every Day with Rachael Ray, Vivian has also had her work appear in outlets including Weight Watchers, Prevention, the Wall Street Journal, and Shape. Vivian is a co-author of Judy Joo’s Korean Food Made Simple. She has contributed to The MeatEater Fish and Game Cookbook, the Food Network Kitchens Cookbook, Edible Jersey Farmers’ Markets Cookbook, and more. Vivian is an IACP Awards Finalist in Instructional Writing.    

Liz Tarpy has been working in various food and recipe development roles for more than 25 years. She is a former employee of the Food Network, where she worked in the test kitchen, production kitchen, and editorial departments. She has contributed to various books and had her work run in many media outlets, with highlights including The MeatEater Fish and Game Cookbook, Saveur, and the anthology Storied Dishes.  

JAMES ASMUS is a writer of books, theater, comedy, video games, and TV. His published work includes over a dozen Marvel Comics titles including GAMBIT, CAPTAIN AMERICA, and AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, RICK & MORTY, the TRANSFORMERS / MY LITTLE PONY crossover for IDW, and a reimagining of QUANTUM and WOODY for Valiant (which snagged five Harvey Award nominations, including Best Writer). James has also written original series like the Manning Award-nominated apocalyptic buddy comedy END TIMES of BRAM & BEN, action satire SURVIVAL STREET, all-ages sci-fi dark comedy FIELD TRIPPING, plus body horror series EVOLUTION and THIEF OF THIEVES for Skybound (with Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman). In TV, he’s written for Marvel Hero Project and Marvel Video Comics as well as written and produced shows for History and Discovery networks. James lives outside Portland, OR, with his wife and two weirdly wonderful kids.