About

Easy dinner & dessert recipes anyone can make!

Welcome to The Food Charlatan! I’m Karen, a self-taught home cook who’s obsessed with testing recipes until they’re just right, so you don’t have to. There’s the time I made a billion banana breads to find my favorite: The Great Banana Bread Bake Off of 2020. Or the time I got so fed up with dry-as-a-bone cornbread I took matters into my own hands: Moist Cornbread Or Bust Adventure of 2019.

My goal? To make you look like you know what you’re doing in the kitchen…(even if you don’t). Cooking isn’t magic—it’s method. And you can learn. All you need is a little help and a solid recipe. If you’ve ever mistaken cayenne for cinnamon (hi, Grandma!) you’re in the right place. My team and I are here to make sure what you cook turns out awesome.

What you’ll find here

1. Easy, delicious recipes you can trust. My apple pie recipe has 25 steps for a reason: no guesswork. Just real food that works. If an 8-year-old can make it (mine can!) so can you.
2. Quick access to what you need. Every page has options to “Save this recipe,” “Print” and “Jump to Recipe” so you can start cooking fast. All my recipes are organized in the menu or the Recipe Index.
3. Fun! I believe dinner should be fun, a little messy, and always shared with people you love. Around here, recipes are written like I’m emailing my best friend. They’re clear, tested, and packed with tips so you can cook without stress (or smoke alarms).

My kid’s piano teacher told me the other day that he gets all his recipes from ChatGPT, and I quietly died inside. I said, do you really want the AVERAGE of every recipe on the internet, including all the crappy ones?? WTH!! We are not Jetsons-level yet, guys!! Trust a human!

Meet the Team

These days my brain is exploding with SO many recipes I want to share with you that I can’t keep up on my own. Enter team! I couldn’t do it on my own without these guys. They are amazing, and what makes The Food Charlatan what it is!

• Karen: Recipe tester, cookie monster, founder. (Read more on the Author page!)
• Eric: Co-owner, financials guy, and Karen-wrangler.
• Sarah: Project manager, recipe developer, and BFF with superhero kitchen skills.
• Laura A: Content writer, healthy twist expert, and Karen’s A+ sister.
• Niki: Email whisperer and content editor.
• Laura AJ: Personal chef, post-polisher, and Barcelona-based brilliance.

The Food Charlatan—featured!

The Food Charlatan has been featured across the web in places like Good Morning America, Oprah.com, BuzzFeed, Parade, Good Housekeeping, and SheKnows.

Let’s get cooking!

• Check out my 1000+ recipes! Browse the Recipe Index.
• Get recipes delivered to your email: Join over 50K other readers. Sign up now to join my email list!
• Sign up for the current (or upcoming) Cooking Challenge! This is a fun challenge where we can cook together!
• Try out my favorite kitchen tools. Check out my shop for the real-deal stuff I use in my kitchen every day.
• Comment to say hello, at the bottom of any post! When you comment on a recipe or send me an email, little red hearts replace my pupils. It makes me so happy to hear from you! Like I said, blogging is about community, and the fact that you took the time to chime in basically fills my soul with warm molasses cookies. I read EVERY comment that’s left on a recipe post!
• Join me on Social Media! I would love to say hello in real time! Find me on Facebook (150K+ followers) or Instagram (27K+ followers) or Pinterest (280K followers). I would LOVE to see what you are cooking! Share your photos by tagging me, @thefoodcharlatan.