Alba Caraceni

Photo of Alba Caraceni
Location
Queens, NY
School
Binghamton University, Fordham University
Expertise
Dessert Baking, Italian Soul Food, Food Facts
  • Alba is a Claire Saffitz superfan, having watched every one of the star pastry chef's YouTube videos, read both of her cookbooks "Dessert Person" and "What's for Dessert" cover to cover, made her recipes, and used Saffitz's techniques and tips to help make her baking better.
  • Her knowledge of food-related facts/trivia helped her get one of the questions right when she was a one-day champion on the classic TV game show "Jeopardy!" She had hoped to get a full food category or the iconic "Potent Potables."
  • She started her dessert journey at a young age by helping her mother make pizzelles, a waffle-like cookie native to the Italian region where her family is from, and using her aunt's butter cake recipe so often she memorized it. Overall, she's learned that mistakes can result in an even better dessert, eggnog loaf cake is the perfect Christmas gift, and baking can help you heal, as making Key Lime pie cookies did for her.

Experience

Alba's writing career began in the news department of New York City radio station WOR after graduate school, where she wrote scripts for daily morning newscasts, oversaw newsroom operations, and learned all she could about the industry. She moved on to a national radio network where she wrote news and information packages daily for stations across the country. But she realized along the way that she was enjoying writing about food and lifestyle topics more than about news and politics, more animated when she wrote about the menu they were serving at a White House state dinner for a foreign head of state than about what foreign policy issues they were discussing, or about Starbucks' new holiday coffee flavors than about their labor policies. So, when Covid and some following events shook things up for her, Alba decided to put her skills to use writing about something she's really enthused about and is excited to be doing that for Food Republic.

Education

Alba has a bachelor's degree in political science from Binghamton University (State University of New York) and a master's degree in public communications from Fordham University.

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Stories By Alba Caraceni