Welcome to Culini! I'm Jen. Three things to know about me (not nearly the most important three things, but for the get-to-know-you stage, this will do)...I'm a marketing/media relations consultant, restaurant lover and fairly sarcastic. I am still working out how the last one can really come across in written blog form, maybe someone can invent a sarcastic font? Bill Gates, get back to me on that one.

Now then, let's clarify some other points. I love trying new restaurants, and am new to my city (Chicago) so that all works out very nicely. The trouble in these early days though is no matter how good your meal is at one place, there is the moral dilemma: repeat a delicious outing or try a new place and expand you list of confirmed awesome establishments? My future posts will discuss some of these finds, both in Chicago and around the world.

Also related to this love of restaurants, I want to clarify one thing. I think there are two kinds of restaurant lovers: food aficionados looking for inspiration in their at home kitchen adventures, and those that couldn't cook their way out of a paper bag...though I'm not sure that analogy works there, how would anyone cook their way out? Regardless... I'm the former. I am an avid at-home chef, so from time to time I'll post stories and pictures of my latest creations.

Finally, my current "day job" is connected to the foodservice industry, so you can also look here for insight and commentary on industry news, reports from national conferences and tradeshows (RCA and NRA coming soon!). If there is a topic you are really interested in, let me know. I'm happy to do the research and write a post about it. Just comment here, or drop me a line at jen@culini.com.