Beth Dooley has been covering the local food scene in the Northern Heartland for the past twenty-five years. She is a restaurant critic for the Mpls/St. Paul Magazine, writes for the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune's Taste section, and is coauthor with Lucia Watson of Savoring the Seasons of the Northern Heartland (Minnesota, 2005), which was nominated for a Beard Award. Dooley teaches cooking classes at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum and lives in Minneapolis with her husband and three sons.