Miriam Gottfreid ’05 of Mango Lassie.

Miriam Gottfried graduated from Wesleyan in 2005 and has since been primarily working as a professional journalist. She also started the Mango Lassie food blog to combine her interests of food with writing. Hear more from Miriam below:

What have you been up to since graduation?

I have primarily been working as a professional journalist since I graduated in 2005. I wrote for Forbes magazine from its Chicago bureau for a year and freelanced for Chicago Public Radio, Chicago magazine and Crain’s Chicago Business. I got married to Nick Bartell in a beach ceremony at the Oregon Coast in August. I am now a graduate student, concentrating in business and economic journalism at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. I also have a part time job as a research assistant to a New York Times reporter who is working on a book.

What parts of your undergraduate experience do you still draw on now?

My Wesleyan education was the perfect preparation for journalism because it fueled my excitement about learning in general. As a reporter, I am researching a new, relatively foreign, subject every day. As a College of Letters and Spanish Literature major, I learned to be thorough and ask interesting questions, a skill that continues to serve me well.

What lead you to create the Mango Lassie blog?

I was a food critic for Chicago magazine, which meant I got sent to some of the city’s most upscale restaurants to review them. Very few of the restaurants were places my friends or I would have been able to visit regularly. I also realized that my favorite thing about the cuisine in a multi-cultural city like Chicago were the fantastic ethnic food and hole-in-the-wall cafes. I wanted an outlet to write about these experiences, so I started the blog.

What do you hope to accomplish through the blog and for yourself in the future?

I hope to continue in the field of business journalism, which fascinates me on an intellectual level and is far more likely to pay the bills than food writing. That said, I plan to continue the blog and to keep pitching food-related stories to publications. I also hope to combine my interests and cover the business of food.

Miriam cleaving jerk chicken in Jamaica!
Miriam cleaving jerk chicken in Jamaica!