Mackenzie Stratton

Mackenzie is a food writer who approaches the topic from all angles—the technical, aesthetic, cultural, and political. She enjoys the crossroads between writing and cooking because both fields require a level of precision and finesse, but there is also plenty of room for creative expression.

Highlights

• Currently working on a local foods cookbook about Mexican cuisine
• Have lived in five countries, including Mexico, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Costa Rica
• Published over 30 cooking guides and food history features for The Spruce Eats and 22 Words
• Speaks both English and Spanish

Experience

Mackenzie's earliest memories are baking "owl pellet" cookies with her grandmother (a family recipe that's an ooey-gooey concoction of oatmeal and chocolate), as well as creating inventive appetizers for family gatherings (mini hotdog tostadas, anyone?).  

Since then, she has explored many corners of the globe and adopted a variety of diets—from raw vegan to budget-friendly to local foods grown and tended on a farm she worked on. She has served as the head cook for a vegetarian community, developed recipes for multiple public service organizations, contributed recipes, photos, and writing to a local foods cookbook, and written instructional cooking and food history articles for two online periodicals. 

To continue sharpening her knowledge, Mackenzie has dove into traditional methods of food preparation, from Argentinian pit-cooking to Slavic fermenting and Chinese hotpot. Her passion is learning about culture, as well as exercising creativity through food.

Education

Mackenzie has a B.S. from Drexel University.

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.