#MediaMonday – Christina Barrueta
As we hope you know by now, each Monday, we share a blog post to help our readers get to know the media just a little bit better.
With a TWIST!
This isn’t necessary about pitch tips or creating media lists, but instead great stories from the media themselves about their lives, their work and other little known facts! Think of it as your first “networking” opportunity of the week!
This month, we are actually taking our “twist” even further…with a theme! In honor of Arizona’s Spring Restaurant Week starting today, HMATime is profiling one of our favorite food-focused media friends.
Today’s #MediaMonday comes to us from Christina Barrueta, who most people know as Write On Rubee.
It’s been a big spring for Christina – not only did she take an AMAZING cocktail class with moi with master mixologist Matt Allen at the Westin AND taste the heck out of Bourbon Steak’s new custom barrel of Bulleit Bourbon (also with moi!), but she took home a little something last month at the Arizona Culinary Hall of Fame, too.
What, you ask?
Oh, no big deal – just the Hall of Fame’s Food Writer of the Year Award!
We are so happy to profile her today – she’s going to share how she got into food, writing – and even explain what Write On Rubee means for those who aren’t familiar.
So, Christina, what do what do you want to tell the blogosphere about yourself today?
I was born in Washington, D.C., lived in Thailand briefly, and grew up in Billerica, Mass. I was a picky eater, as my parents like to remind me. My love affair with cooking and food started in my teens with PBS cooking shows, a subscription to Gourmet magazine and joining mom in the kitchen. She’s a wonderful cook whose dinners can include anything from Vietnamese favorites to New England classics; from homemade pizza to fondue. Dad was also a short-order cook (before becoming an award-winning patent creator at Honeywell), and my brother Craig whips up amazing multi-course gourmet feasts.
Traveling really expanded my culinary horizons. When I was 22, I spent three months in Australia, New Zealand, and the South Pacific. Memorable dishes included Moreton Bay Bugs (slipper lobsters) in Sydney, kokoda and kava in Fiji, poisson cru in Tahiti, and meat pies and pavlova in New Zealand.
I met my husband Ernesto in 2000 at Abe and Louie’s, an upscale steakhouse in Boston. He’s Mexican (and speaks fluent Spanish), and we were engaged and later married in Mexico. Our 2004 wedding took place at the Ritz-Carlton Cancun and one of the highlights was sitting down with the chef to plan a menu together. He was just as excited as I was, as no one had ever asked him to do that before. We had passed hors d’ouevres such as shrimp ceviche with tequila, oysters topped with crispy chorizo, foie gras brulee and a sopes bar. Dinner included huitlacoche and queso Oxaca ravioli with flor de calabaza puree and guajillo pepper, guanabana sorbet with tequila honey intermezzo, and surf and turf with dried chile-crusted filet, tamarindo-glazed lobster tail, and cilantro potato cake. It’s still one of my favorite meals of all time.
We lived in downtown Boston before moving to Arizona in 2008. While I miss Boston, and especially the restaurants (we lived at Harbor Towers next to the Aquarium, and could walk to Chinatown and the North End), I’ve fallen in love with Phoenix and our culinary scene here. From 2008 to 2015, I was the food and beverage writer for Arizona Wine Lifestyles magazine. When it was sold last year, I became a freelance writer but also wanted an outlet to continue supporting our amazing talent here, and launched my website WriteOnRubee.com to document the places and people I love. Topics covered include restaurants, travel destinations, beverages, recipes, interviews with local and national industry professionals, event coverage and calendar, and even my gardening hobby.
It has been a lot more work than I anticipated (in addition to writing for local and national online and print publications, I also have a full-time job in medical editing) but I am enjoying it and am so grateful for all the support and encouragement I’ve received.
And one question I am often asked – why do I use Rubee? It stems from my many years of contributing to a food board called Chowhound.com, where Rubee was the name I chose for posting. I also used it for social media, and I was advised to keep it when starting the website. I’m thrilled about my Arizona Culinary Hall of Fame induction and that my site won Arizona Foothills Magazine’s 2016 Favorite Local Food Website. My intent is to showcase our fabulous culinary, beverage, and agricultural riches and the people behind them, so I just hope I continue to do them justice!
Oh, you can also find me on Instagram here and on Twitter here.
