Dawn Viola is a research and development chef and food writer. She serves on the board of directors for Slow Food Orlando, and works with local and national companies as a healthy recipe consultant with a focus on organic, local and sustainable ingredients. After an accomplished career as a copywriter, creative director and documentary producer in the advertising industry for over a decade, Dawn switched her writing focus to food and enrolled in culinary school when she discovered she had multiple food allergies. She graduated with honors from the culinary management program at Valencia College, completed her externship at Americas Test Kitchen and Cooks Illustrated Magazine in Boston, and began teaching others how to cook with a back-to-basics approach. When Dawn isn't writing delicious stories for SheKnows.com, you'll find her stirring the pot on Twitter, Facebook and her blog, DawnViola.com, named a top-ten food blog four years running for her commitment to cooking with organic, sustainable and local ingredients.