Bev Shaffer

Chef | Writer | Teacher | Traveler | Storyteller

Bev Shaffer has never been especially interested in choosing just one lane. She is a chef, instructor, cookbook author, food journalist, recipe developer, speaker and enthusiastic traveler – often all before dessert. As the founder of COOK.WRITE.TRAVEL.REPEAT, her culinary consulting and food-and-travel writing business, Bev brings together the things she loves most: cooking, exploring, teaching, and telling a great story.

Today, Bev is the Food and Drink Reporter for The Repository | USA TODAY Network, covering the people, places and flavors that make a community worth knowing. Over the course of her career, she has developed more than 20,000 original recipes – which is a lot of chopping, tasting, tweaking and very full recipe boxes. Her expertise even earned her an invitation to present her Winter Comfort Food Workshop at the James Beard House in New York City. Naturally, brownies were involved.

Her journalism has earned first-place honors from both The Press Club of Cleveland, for food and restaurant writing, and the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists, for business and consumer reporting. Whether she is interviewing a chef, unpacking a hospitality trend or explaining why a kitchen gadget deserves its drawer space, Bev approaches every story with curiosity, clarity and a healthy appetite.

Bev is the author of the To Die For! dessert cookbook series: BROWNIES To Die For!, featured in People magazine’s Mother’s Day Gift Guide; COOKIES To Die For!, published in both English and French; CAKES To Die For!; and CHOCOLATE DESSERTS To Die For! She also co-authored No Reservations Required and wrote The Mustard Seed Market & Cafe Natural Foods Cookbook. In other words, she has spent a good part of her career making sure no one leaves the table without something memorable.

Before launching COOK.WRITE.TRAVEL.REPEAT, Bev served as Corporate Chef and Manager of Recipe Development at Vitamix World Headquarters. Her work took her from Japan to Germany and beyond, where she trained teams, demonstrated new products, met with media and gathered business insights from global markets. She has also consulted for some of the best-known names in the industry, including Le Creuset, Calphalon, Kroger and Weber.

Bev is no stranger to a camera or microphone. She has made more than 180 television appearances on Cleveland-area networks, public television, and Spectrum News Ohio; hosted an award-winning cooking show on WCTV; and created the Bev’s Kitchen radio segments. Her popular Ask Bev column appeared in The Cleveland Plain Dealer, while Northern Ohio Live magazine gave her an excellent excuse to test the latest tools in her Gadget Freak column. She has also presented at national food shows, where her hands-on chocolate sessions have drawn standing-room-only crowds. Chocolate will do that.

Her peers have recognized both her culinary accomplishments and her leadership. Bev received the Les Dames d’Escoffier International Grande Dame Award for her contributions to food and philanthropy, as well as an ATHENA Leadership Award and the Summit County Historical Society’s Woman of the Year in Creativity honor. She was twice awarded an international culinary writing fellowship at the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. A founding member of the Cleveland chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier International, she served seven terms on the organization’s international board, including as president.

For Bev, food has always been about more than what lands on the plate. She has taught healthy cooking to cancer recovery groups, life skills to health department clients, and culturally inspired cooking classes to high school language students. Her edible Christmas tree ornaments even decorated culinary-themed trees in the Grand Foyer of the White House – proof that sometimes you really can have your decorations and eat them, too. She also helped establish the Ronald McDonald House of Akron, supporting families with hospitalized children.

One of the most meaningful chapters of Bev’s life began when she stepped away from her career for six years to care for her late husband, John, during his journey with Alzheimer’s disease. That experience deepened her commitment to advocacy, and she represented the Alzheimer’s Association on Capitol Hill, calling for greater research, resources and support for families and caregivers.

When she is not writing, teaching, speaking or testing one more recipe, Bev puts her Ohio State University Master Gardener training to work and remains connected to organizations including Chefs Collaborative and Slow Food International. Wherever the next assignment takes her – a newsroom, a stage, a garden, a faraway market or back to the kitchen – she brings expertise, generosity, humor and an enduring sense of curiosity.