About Me

Hello. I’m Chefdruck, a French Foodie recently transplanted from the New York area to Chicago with her husband and four kids.

Background

I grew up in France where my mother still lives. We moved around a lot due to my father’s job and before I graduated from college in DC, I got to live in France, England, New York, Brazil, Morocco, and Barcelona. All that travel just left me craving more, more tastes, more smells, more adventure. I’m happiest when packing a suitcase, or four.

I am not a classically trained chef. I took a lot of recreational cooking classes after graduating from college at the Institute of Culinary Education in NYC, but I decided to get my MBA instead of leaving my marketing job to work in a kitchen. I learned most of what I know in my mother’s kitchen in France. I am the chef of my home kitchen, and I aspire to be a true chef, one day, when I grow up.

The dream begins after my kids leave the nest for college or other pursuits. That’s when my husband and I will spend a couple of years traveling the world attending various cooking schools. And then we’ll come back to a cozy little town somewhere in the States and open up our little restaurant. We hope you’ll drop by and break bread with us.

And until then, I’ll keep dreaming, right here, at Chefdruck Musings.

Blog Stats, Social Media Reach and Demographics:

Google PR: 4 for the last 2 years
Monthly Page Views: average of 10,000.
Twitter: 3,700 followers.
Facebook: 550 friends and 100 fans.
Feedburner and Google Follow: 1,160 subscribers.
Alexa Ranking: 128,946 US, 557,836 Worldwide (April 2011)
Technorati Rankings by Topic: 32,603 Overall, 765 Food, 1,525 Living, 1554 Books.
Compete Ranking: 520,923 worldwide
Alexa analyzed my visitor demographics: Compared with the overall internet population, the site’s audience tends to be female; they are also disproportionately college graduates earning over $60,000 who have more children and browse from home.

Beyond the Blog

Editing:

In addition to writing my personal blog, I edit and shape the content of three websites:

Technorati Women: Technorati.com has millions of monthly viewers. I launched the Women’s Section in September 2011, featuring blog posts tied to current events related to women. We have hundreds of talented writers and cover a wide range of topics including relationships, parenting, diet, fashion, health, and education.

BlogCritics Tastes: BlogCritics is a Technorati website with a passionate, highly educated readership. In April 2011, I relaunched the Tastes channel as a destination for foodies featuring recipes, cookbook reviews, chef interviews, and food news. From day 1, our talented writers have contributed quality food writing and photography.

The Chicago Moms: In July 2011, working in partnership with MJ Tam, I launched the Chicago Moms, featuring the voices of over 40 Chicago bloggers.

I’m also a freelance writer and a recipe developer.

I write for national and local parenting publications including American Baby Magazine, the Parent Paper, the Columbus Parent and the Parent Guide. My clips cover a variety of topics including social media in the delivery room, websites for little ones, dating your spouse, Halloween entertaining and dining out with kids.

I do recipe development and contribute articles and photography to the Kellogg’s Snackpicks website.

I also compose local activity guides for websites like SheKnows.

My piece entitled Chasing the Gray was syndicated through the McClatchy Tribune wire in local papers nationwide including the Modesto Bee and the Wichita Eagle.