Andrea Slonecker Named Executive Director of Portland Culinary Alliance

Voted in just today, very possibly at the very same moment that she was spotted eating Kevin Gibson's artichoke salad and grilled cheese at SE Hawthorne's Evoe along with powerhouse publicist Bette Sinclair and some crasher they dragged in off the street, Andrea Slonecker has been named Executive Director of the PCA, "the foremost association of culinary professionals in the Pacific Northwest." Slonecker took a break from cookbook testing and writing about food to explain a little more.

At the board meeting today, I was voted in as the Executive Director, which I am super excited about, hence the FB post. Ashley Gartland (freelance writer) was the ED for the past few years, but recently resigned to pursue other professional endeavors. I will be taking over for Ashley beginning in April.

Ashley and I co-conspired last year on a highly successful PCA event called "Eat My Words." For this event we brought several renowned food writers in the genres of food fiction and food memoir—including Molly Wizenberg (Orangette), Matthew Amster-Burton, and Gluten-Free Girl—to Portland to read from their books and have a dialogue with each other and the audience. Then we gathered rising star chefs from around Portland to create a dish inspired by the author's books for a luncheon following the readings.