A waitress walks into a bar . . .
​and becomes a nationally recognized food maven.

Photo John Lok/The Seattle Times

Nancy Leson is a Seattle-based food writer, radio personality and public speaker who learned much of what she knows about food during her first career: waiting tables. Seattle readers know her as the mouth that scored — for the better part of two decades — as restaurant critic and food columnist for the Seattle Times. These days, when she’s not sharing recipes via NPR member-station KNKX, you’ll find her teaching cooking classes at PCC, Book Larder, Bayview School of Cooking and other area culinary schools, hosting international tours with Bainbridge Island-based Earthbound Expeditions and the University of Washington Alumni Association, and helping end hunger, one loaf at a time, as a neighborhood hub-coordinator for Community Loaves.