About Kim O'Donnel

For the past twenty-five years, Kim O'Donnel has been working in food as a chef, journalist, and teacher. A former food writer for The Washington Post and several other newspapers big and small, Kim is the author of three vegetable cookbooks.

The first Meatless Monday blogger, Kim is a known authority on the continuing trend of eating less meat for health and environmental reasons. Most recently, she has been the recipe editor for the forthcoming cookbook from Philadelphia chefs Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook. The thing she is most proud of in recent years: Going to Poland in April, 2022 as a World Central Kitchen volunteer cooking for Ukrainian refugees.

Born and raised in the Philadelphia area, Kim has lived in Seattle and Washington, D.C. with her husband, journalist and head dishwasher Russ Walker. These days, home is Lancaster, Pa. She's got an English degree from University of Pennsylvania and a culinary diploma from the Institute of Culinary Education in New York. 

“I still believe deep in my bones that cooking, which marries the practical with the magical, can be the greatest teacher of all, and that it’s never too late to learn.”
— From a 2013 essay Kim wrote on Civil Eats

© 2010-17 Kim O'Donnel. All rights reserved. All photographs except where otherwise indicated are copyrighted by Clare Barboza, Charity Burggraaf, or Myra Kohn. No photograph on this website can be downloaded, reproduced, or used in any way without the written permission of the photographer. No recipe or text can be reproduced without the written permission of Kim O'Donnel.