Kazia Jankowski was born and raised in Denver, Colorado, but a childhood filled with trips abroad gave her a love of new places. When it came time to go to university, she picked Bowdoin College in Maine—and her junior year she opted to study in Chile. As she moved, she began to seek comfort and stability in food and writing—and she filled her college days baking and scribbling articles for the Bowdoin paper and El Mercurio de Valparaíso, Chile’s oldest newspaper.
But it wasn’t until after college that Kazia grew serious about her passions. Upon graduation, Kazia followed her love of food to San Sebastían, Spain, where she attended the professional cooking school, El Txoto del Gourmet. She came back to the United States with real, trial-by-fire culinary experience, but she missed writing and looked for a way to integrate it into her career. Eventually, she landed in the kitchen of Cook’s Illustrated magazine, where she tested recipes for the publisher’s Best 30-Minute Recipe book. Then, she headed back to the West.
For the next few years, Kazia moved between Denver and Peru. At home, she wrote restaurant reviews for 5280, Denver’s critically acclaimed city magazine, and in Peru, she completed the second edition of the guidebook, Moon Peru, and established a culinary travel company, Pica Peru. Finally, she returned to Denver and a staff position at 5280, where she wrote culinary and arts stories. In 2009, Kazia left the magazine to join Sterling-Rice Group (Boulder, CO), a food-centric branding and innovation firm. Now, she balances the world of food and flavor with writing and creative business.
