Jane Stern was raised in New York City and southern Arizona, learning to love both hot pastrami sandwiches and bordertown chimichangas. She met Michael Stern when they were graduate students at Yale University, at which point the couple set out on a lifelong quest to find the best American food and to write about it.

Michael Stern was raised at a Heartland table of square meals. The Sterns’ monthly “Roadfood” column in Gourmet magazine has earned them three James Beard Awards for journalism. They are heard weekly on Public Radio's The Splendid Table.