Rick McDaniel is a food historian, culinary anthropologist and author who specializes in the food of the American South with a particular interest in the Federal and Antebellum periods. He is the author of An Irresistible History of Southern Food (History Press, 2011). The New York Times, MSNBC and newspapers and magazines throughout the South have interviewed McDaniel about Southern food history and traditional recipes. He has been a consultant to the producers of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on the Food Network and Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations on the Travel Channel, as well as a Southern Regional panelist for the James Beard Foundation's chef and restaurant awards. His website, chefrick.com, has been featured in the New York Times and was selected as one of the best Internet resources on American cookery by the University of Oregon and the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. His first book, An Irresistible History of Southern Food is in the reference collections of Duke University, UNC-Chapel Hill, The University of Chicago and Harvard University.