Diana Rattray

Diana Rattray is an avid home cook and food lover with a passion for culinary history and Southern and regional cooking.

Contact Diana at southernfood@classic-recipes.com.

Highlights

20+ years experience writing about food
Published more than 5,000 recipes and articles
Author of "Guide to Southern Cooking" and "The Everything Southern Cookbook"
Member of Southern Foodways Alliance
Owner of Classic-Recipes.com

Experience

Diana has had a lifelong love affair with cooking. She was introduced to the culinary arts by her grandfather, a baker and chef who cooked for farms, restaurants, and resorts. Her interest in Southern food began more than 20 years ago when she moved to Mississippi.

Diana has been developing new recipes and writing about food since 1996. She has been a contributor for About.com and The Spruce Eats, focusing on Southern cuisine since 1997. Many of her recipes and articles were featured in online and print publications, including national publications such as Reader's Digest and Epicurious, and local newspapers like the Memphis Commercial Appeal, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Deseret News, The Erie Times-News, Columbia Star, Press (Newport News ), Times Free Press (Chattanooga), and many more.

Diana's knowledge of food comes from her giant collection of cookbooks and food references. She is also an avid baker and enjoys creating rustic artisan breads. Other culinary interests range from home preserving to making fresh pasta.

Education

Cooking classes at the Viking Cooking School in Greenwood, MS
Online photography courses
College writing courses

Awards and Publications

Diana's cookbook, "Guide to Southern Cooking," was published in 2006, followed by "The Everything Southern Cookbook" in 2015.

Expertise: Southern cuisine, easy recipes, artisan baking, preserving, pressure cooking

About The Spruce

The Spruce, a Dotdash brand, is a new kind of home website offering practical, real-life tips and inspiration to help you create your best home. The Spruce family of brands, including The Spruce, The Spruce Eats, The Spruce Pets, and The Spruce Crafts collectively reach 30 million people each month.

For more than 20 years, Dotdash brands have been helping people find answers, solve problems, and get inspired. We are one of the top-20 largest content publishers on the Internet according to comScore, a leading Internet measurement company, and reach more than 30% of the U.S. population every month. Our brands collectively have won more than 20 industry awards in the last year alone and, most recently, Dotdash was named Publisher of the Year by Digiday, a leading industry publication.