Hello! I am Haley. I live in Des Moines, IA, as a chef, recipe tester, and food columnist. I graduated from Iowa Culinary Institute in 2021. Before I began my culinary journey, I worked in the tech industry for twelve years. I always felt like I was working towards someone else's dream. So, I left it all to pursue my passion: food. I love to read about food, talk about food, make food, and, most importantly, eat.

As I neared 40, I realized having a career I loved was vital. I wanted goals and to follow my passion. I decided to build a career around food. It is what I love to do in my free time, whether reading recipes, cooking for friends and family, planning meals, grocery shopping, or eating at restaurants.

Once I decided to pursue a career in food, my choice was natural. I knew I would attend Iowa Culinary Institute. Growing up and living in Des Moines, I had heard a lot about the school. I knew its excellent reputation. I reached out to the ICI at a point of desperation at my job. I was feeling completely bored and burned out. When I heard back from the school, it felt like a life raft. I was excited to learn more about the program and how I might fit in at DMACC. I took a tour and found out the details about the program. I knew it was the right decision for me the moment I left that day. I was relieved and surprised when my family supported my choice.

During Covid-19, I started making meals for my friends and family. Since we couldn't eat together, it was nice to cook for the people I love from afar. And from there, Valentine Kitchen was born. Slowly but surely, I created a little food business doing what I love most: cooking for people.

After running a small business for two years, I was ready for the next step in my journey. I had begun working for Julia Turshen as a community moderator for her (mostly) weekly cooking class Sundays with Julia. She asked me to recipe-test her upcoming cookbook, and I couldn't be more excited. I also recipe-tested Monique Volz's cookbook, The Ambitious Kitchen. After dipping my toe in the editorial world, I was ready to dive in.

I am currently a newsletter editor at DDM. I am responsible for curating the content for two daily newsletters, Simply Recipes and Serious Eats. I select relevant stories based on performance and trends, write headlines and copy, and collaborate with editors to pitch stories and recipes. The short version, I read recipes all day. So now I get paid to do what I was already doing and loved so much: reading recipes all day.