"When I signed up for a knife skills class, I wasn't a total novice. I mean, I knew a julienne from a chiffonade. But meal prep routinely took twice as much time as a recipe promised, and I needed to speed up my slice and dice."

"I could smell the 50,000-pound pile of tomatoes before I saw it. Spoiled produce funk carried on the breeze as I walked to a field at Pleasanton's Alameda County Fairgrounds. I knew that the tomatoes used in Tomato Battle were unsellable—staff was quick to point out that food wasn't being wasted, but rather food going to waste was being used—I just didn't fully comprehend that the tomatoes would be rotten. Eew."

"I'll chase butterflies or cup a praying mantis in my hands. I've been known to save earthworms from drowning in puddles and even refer to bumblebees as cute. But spiders? Spiders are not OK."