PRESENTERS

Melissa Guerra

As an active food blogger, you can follow Melissa Guerra daily through her Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and X posts, or through her blog website www.kitchenwrangler.com.  Recently, Guerra has started a food history podcast on YouTube.

Melissa Guerra is a self-taught culinary expert and food historian, specializing in the food ways of the American continent, especially Texas regional, Mexican, and Latin American cuisine. Guerra is an 8th generation Texan, born, raised and currently living on a working cattle ranch in South Texas.

Her second cookbook Dishes from the Wild Horse Desert: Norteño Cuisine of South Texas was a finalist for a James Beard Award in the category of Foods of the Americas, and for an International Association of Culinary Professionals award in the same category. The Texas Provincial Kitchen was her first cookbook and was self- published.

After acquiring an MFA in Creative Writing through the University of Texas – Rio Grande Valley, Guerra continues to write and publish articles about life along the United States/Mexican border.

Melissa Guerra is a member of Les Dames d’ Escoffier, a founding board member of Foodways Texas, and a member of The Culinary Institute of America Latin Cuisines Advisory Council Executive Committee.

Guerra has taught food history and college writing at the Culinary Institute of Americas in San Antonio, Texas and Hyde Park, New York. Guerra also works as a freelance recipe developer/ photographer/ content creator.

In past projects, owned and operated a retail kitchen store in San Antonio, along with its online retail component. Melissa Guerra’s cooking show, “The Texas Provincial Kitchen,” was produced in San Antonio at KLRN, and aired on PBS affiliates across the U.S. Guerra has worked as a bi-lingual spokesperson for Kraft, Coca-Cola, Goya and Mazola. Melissa Guerra served as a consultant and was featured as a culinary expert on the PBS reality show “Texas Ranch House.”

Lizzy Freier

Lizzy Freier is Director of Menu Research & Insights at Technomic. Lizzy leads the menu research team at Technomic, tracking and analyzing current and predictive trends. Although her focus is on commercial food, beverage and adult beverage trend- and data-tracking at restaurants, she has also analyzed noncommercial, convenience-store and global trends. During her (almost) 15 years at Technomic, she has established numerous products for the company, presented at dozens of large industry events in the U.S. and abroad, and has been interviewed by various media outlets, ranging from BBC News to The Wall Street Journal.