Colleen Rush was born and raised in Louisiana, where "Didya get something to eat?" and "You hungry?" are as common a greeting as "How's your mama?"" She grew up picking dewberries out of thorny ditches, catching crawfish in flooded rice fields and learning how to make a proper roux — far, far away from the world of starched linens and gleaming silverware — and discovered very early that the best things in life always involve food.

Rush is a contributing writer for Cosmopolitan magazine and the author of Swim Naked, Defy Gravity & 99 Other Essential Things to Accomplish Before Turning 30 (Blue Hen/Penguin). She currently lives in Chicago.