Joy Manning

Joy needs to be incognito because of her Food Critic gig

Joy Manning decided to join WeAreTheRealDeal in November 2009 because of her life long struggle with disordered eating and body image issues.

She is a food writer, cookbook author, and Philadelphia magazine’s restaurant critic. Her work has also appeared in Food & Wine, Cooking Light, Relish, and Inked magazines. She is a regular contributor at Serious Eats.com. Though she was always passionate about food and writing, her career path has been circuitous.

After earning her Master’s degree in fiction writing from Temple University, she worked for two years as an administrative assistant before deciding to change careers. Joy landed her first job in publishing, a copy editing position at a regional magazine, by writing a memorable cover letter that was structured as a Top 10 list—the top reasons to hire her in spite of her lack of relevant education or experience. (Reasons included her enthusiasm for hanging out with coworkers at happy hour and her reputation for delivering memos in person and not via interoffice mail.)

Once established in the role of copy editor, she set her sights on becoming Food Editor. Within four years, she was made Senior Editor, but her heart always belonged to the food section, and she left her full time position to write her cookbook, Almost Meatless.

She is now a full time freelance writer and recipe developer—a job that is sometimes tough to balance with the yo-yo diets and body image issues she’s battled all her life. When not working, Joy likes to watch TV shows on DVD with her husband, cook, eat, and run. She lives in South Philadelphia.

She blogs at OysterEvangelist.com.