Resume of a food writer

Amy Scattergood is going full-time on the staff of the Los Angeles Times Food section. She might a be a trifle overqualified, judging by today's memo from Michalene Busico, the deputy features editor, and food editor Leslie Brenner.

New reporter--Food

We're extremely pleased to announce that Amy Scattergood has joined The Times as a full-time reporter for Food. Soon after coming to Food as an intern last winter, Amy impressed readers with her voice and authority, writing cover stories on the art and science of flambe, the extreme cooking of Paula Wolfert and her own odyssey through the artichoke chapter of Larousse. After her internship, Amy went on to freelance for the section, filing terrific covers on L.A.'s glamorous hamburgers, an idyllic restaurant in Big Sur and throwing an elegant summer dinner party, among many others.

It was an amazing start for someone who was a newcomer to food writing. But then, Amy's resume is pretty amazing, too. She has a bachelor's degree in English from Bowdoin College, a master's in Religion from Yale University's Divinity School, an M.F.A. in Poetry from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and, most recently, a degree in Culinary Arts from the California School of Culinary Arts in Pasadena. Amy has worked as assistant editor at the Iowa Review and as a writing instructor at the University of Iowa, Pasadena City College and UCLA Extension. She's an accomplished and talented poet, who has published in dozens of journals including the Yale Review, the Antioch Review, Harvard Review, Paris Review and Grand Street. She's also the author of a poetry collection, "The Grammar of Nails."

We're thrilled that Amy is joining The Times. She'll report to Leslie Brenner.

--Michalene Busico, Deputy Features Editor

Leslie Brenner, Food Editor

I guess she fills the slot vacated by Food section stalwart Barbara Hansen, whose recent departure (and that of an assistant in the section) has added to tension around the test kitchen. From what I hear, there's simmering resentment in Features toward the Busico-Brenner management style. Busico has had interpersonal ups and downs since arriving from the New York Times with then-boyfriend Rick Flaste, but it's Brenner (who has her fans as well) whose combative manner and decision-making has recently prompted complaints. "God save the waiter who forgets her wine," a Features veteran emails. "A once happy staff is a study in misery."