Nichole Aksamit

Nichole Aksamit is a skilled writer and editor with nearly 25 years of journalism experience and a lifelong love affair with cooking and all things food. She worked for nearly two decades across many food media platforms: magazines, websites, cookbooks, newsstand special editions, and print and digital news outlets.

Highlights:
- Nichole served as the food reporter and restaurant critic at a major metropolitan daily newspaper. And her work at the Omaha World-Herald was recognized as among the best in the country by the Association of Food Journalists.
- During her tenure as a restaurant critic, the James Beard Foundation invited Nichole to serve as a regional panelist for its Best Chefs awards.
- The Institute for the Culinary Arts in Omaha invited her to teach professional culinary classes and develop a curriculum for curious home cooks in 2011.
- Nichole worked with Southern Living, Cooking Light, MyRecipes, and others to pitch, edit, and produce eight cookbooks and dozens of newsstand special editions in two years as an editor at Oxmoor House, the cookbook division of Time Inc.
- Nichole helped launch Allrecipes magazine in 2013 and, as its editor in chief, led it to win four national and international awards for editorial and design excellence in 2021.

Experience: Nichole Aksamit served as the food reporter and restaurant critic for four years (and health and nutrition reporter for four years prior to that) at the Omaha World-Herald newspaper, writing 200+ restaurant reviews and 800+ food, restaurant, health, and nutrition stories. During her tenure at the World-Herald, Nichole served as a regional panelist for the James Beard Foundation Best Chefs awards, and the Association of Food Journalists recognized the World-Herald as one of the top U.S. daily newspapers for food coverage in 2009, along with The Washington Post and San Francisco Chronicle. She also co-authored and edited the World-Herald cookbook, Scoop (2010).

After leaving the newspaper, Nichole taught professional culinary classes at The Institute for the Culinary Arts in Omaha, edited and produced its first cookbook (Season with Sage), and developed a curriculum for curious home cooks in 2011.

She continued her cookbook editing work at Oxmoor House, the award-winning cookbook division of Time Inc. Over two years there, she edited eight cookbooks and more than a dozen newsstand special editions, steering recipes through development, kitchen testing, photography, and layout. Books she edited include Southern Living's Bourbon & Bacon (Sept. 2014), Country Music's Greatest Eats (May 2014), The Slim Down South Cookbook (Dec. 2013), No Taste Like Home by Kelly Alexander (Oct. 2013), Off the Eaten Path: Second Helpings by Morgan Murphy (May 2013), Little Jars, Big Flavors with Virginia Willis (April 2013), Around the Southern Table by Rebecca Lang (Oct. 2012), and MyRecipes' America's Favorite Food (Sept. 2012).

Nichole joined Allrecipes as senior editor on the team that launched Allrecipes magazine in 2013. She was named executive editor in 2019 and editor in chief in 2021. The magazine has won 10 company, national, and international awards since its launch, including four for editorial and design excellence in 2021.

Education: Nichole earned a bachelor's of arts in English and mass communications and a minor in German from Minnesota State University–Moorhead, where she received the Honors Apprentice Scholarship, a four-year full-tuition academic scholarship. Though she started out as an English major, she expanded her studies to a dual English and mass communications program after working as an editor at the campus newspaper. A lifelong cook and seeker of food knowledge, Nichole took classes at the American Culinary Foundation-accredited Institute for the Culinary Arts at Omaha Metropolitan Community College in 2009 and 2010, but was invited to teach classes there based on her professional knowledge before completing her coursework. In Iowa, Nichole was chosen for the competitive and select Greater Des Moines Community Leadership Program, which she graduated from in 2020.

Honors and Awards:
National, international, and Meredith awards for work at Allrecipes:
*2021 FOLIO Ozzies Award, Best Single-Issue Design, for the April/May 2021 issue of Allrecipes
*2021 FOLIO Eddies Award, Honorable Mention, Best Supplemental Issue, for Allrecipes Plant-Based Recipes special edition May 2021
*2021 International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) Food Photography & Styling Awards, Best Food Styling in an Editorial Photograph, for Epic Mashed Potatoes from the Oct/Nov 2020 issue of Allrecipes
*2021 M.F.K. Fisher Work of Distinction Award from Les Dames d'Escoffier International, for "Filipino Feast" from the Feb/March 2020 issue of Allrecipes
*2020 Adweek Hot List, Hottest in Food: Allrecipes
*2019 FOLIO Ozzie Awards, Best Redesign, for Allrecipes magazine
*2019 Meredith Excellence Award for Service Journalism, for "Cocktail Confidential" in Allrecipes magazine
*2017 FOLIO Honorable Mention, Best Epicurean Magazine, for the June/July/August 2017 issue
*2017 MIN Editorial Excellence Award and 2017 MIN Design Excellence Award for the June/July/August 2017 issue
*2017 Meredith Excellence Award for Creative Excellence for "Secrets from a Vegan Kitchen" series
*2014 E.T. Meredith Excellence Award, for the launch of Allrecipes magazine

National awards for work at the Omaha World-Herald:
*Association of Food Journalists, Best Newspaper Food Coverage, second place, 2009, based on three weeks of Nichole's food and dining coverage
*Association of Food Journalists, Best Food Feature, third place, 2008, for "Clandestine Cuisine," a feature story about underground dining
*Association of Health Care Journalists, Excellence in Health Care Journalism, second place, 2007, for the "Nikki" series about a girl born with a rare brain condition

National awards for work at The Forum newspaper in Fargo:
*National Federation of Press Women, Special Series, third place, 1999, for "A World Apart," a series about a Hutterite colony in Minnesota
*National Federation of Press Women, Continuing Coverage of Unfolding News, third place, 1999, for a series about flooding in North Dakota

Nichole's work has also been recognized by the Nebraska Press Association, the Minnesota Society of Professional Journalists, the North Dakota Newspaper Association, and the North Dakota Professional Communicators.

Professional Memberships: Nichole serves as president of the Greater Des Moines Chapter of Les Dames d'Escoffier International (LDEI) — a nonprofit that uplifts women in the food, beverage, and hospitality industries and supports sustainable food systems and nutritious food for all. Under her leadership, the chapter has raised more than $20,000 toward culinary scholarships for Iowa women and grants for Iowa organizations that fight hunger and food waste and uplift BIPOC communities.

Memberships:
*Les Dames d'Escoffier International (LDEI) Greater Des Moines Chapter, member 2016-present, Membership Committee Chair, 2016 to 2019, Vice President 2019 to 2020, President 2020 to present
*International Association of Culinary Professionals, member 2011 to present

Local/Demographic Expertise: Regional American cooking and culture, including Midwestern and Southern food ways

Fun Allrecipes Question: One kitchen tool I can't live without: My 8-inch Shun chef's knife. I use it so often, it rarely gets tucked back into the knife block. It even goes with me on vacations. Everything is just easier with a sharp knife!