Barbara Fairchild is currently enjoying a multi-faceted career as a freelance food and travel writer, editor, public speaker, radio personality, and consultant.
Ms. Fairchild was for ten years the editor-in-chief of Bon Appetit magazine, based in Los Angeles. She stepped down in January 2011 when the magazine was relocated to New York City. Her career with Bon Appetit spanned more than three decades, beginning as an editorial assistant in 1978.
A prominent leader in the epicurean world, Ms. Fairchild was inducted into the James Beard Foundation’s “Who’s Who in American Food and Beverage” in May 2000.
Since stepping down from Bon Appetit, Barbara was a monthly columnist and then editor of Real Eats, a digital food magazine; she was also the Restaurant & Travel Editor for a new online publication, The Grape Collective, which launched in 2014 at grapecollective.com. Recent projects have included restaurant and travel articles for VISA Black Card Magazine, Barbecue America Magazine, and thomsonreuters.com. She has also taught food writing at New York University as an adjunct professor of Journalism. Barbara has continuing commitments annually moderating for the “Chefs’ Holidays” at The Majestic Hotel (formerly The Awahnee) at Yosemite National Park, and at the Tucson Festival of Books
Barbara hosted a holiday food special for the ABC Radio Network that aired on dozens of ABC affiliate radio stations around the country. She is a frequent guest on the KLAA-AM “Southern California Restaurant Show” in Los Angeles and Jennifer English’s syndicated Food and Wine radio show on KLAV, based in Las Vegas.
Barbara devotes time to charities such as Wholesome Wave, Share Our Strength/No Kid Hungry, the Alzheimer’s Association, the Los Angeles Library Council, and the Motion Picture & Television Fund. She is on the advisory boards of the Marilyn Magaram Center for Food Service, Nutrition & Dietetics, C-CAP Los Angeles (Careers through Culinary Arts), and the digital food and culture websites Zester Daily and The Daily Meal.
During Ms. Fairchild’s tenure as Editor-in-Chief of Bon Appétit, the magazine was honored with three James Beard Awards, numerous awards from the Society of Publication Designers and multiple National Magazine Award nominations, including General Excellence.
Barbara Fairchild is also the author of three successful cookbooks, the 50th anniversary The Bon Appétit Cookbook; Bon Appétit Fast Easy Fresh; and most recently, Bon Appétit Desserts, which was on The New York Times Best-Seller list.
Ms. Fairchild’s frequent television appearances have included NBC’s Today and Dateline; CBS’s The Early Show; CNN; Food Network’s Iron Chef America, two seasons of The Next Food Network Star; America’s Top Restaurant; Fox’s Kitchen Nightmares; Hell’s Kitchen and MasterChef, also with Gordon Ramsay. She has also been interviewed on numerous radio programs across the country.
Barbara Fairchild has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Journalism from California State University Northridge. She lives in Los Angeles.