Julia Duda

• Julia is an amateur baker who is always crafting in the kitchen. She makes custom specialty cakes and especially enjoys the decorative aspect/aesthetics of baking.
• While her interest in baking (and cooking) stems from childhood, she got real-life experience by working in a cafe in college. Here she learned the basics of working in a kitchen, making pastries, crafting coffee, and doing so, so many dishes.
• Her favorite dish to prepare is actually a dish that requires no cooking at all: a charcuterie board. Julia loves experimenting with different types of cheese and wine pairings, and unsurprisingly, she particularly enjoys designing the boards to look just as good as they taste.

Experience

Julia has been a professional writer and content creator since graduating from college in 2019. Her first foray into the field was through ghostwriting, in which she wrote mental health-focused blogs. Wanting to hone in on her pop culture chops, Julia began contributing at POPSUGAR, publishing essays, food reviews, and recipes. She realized that she thrives at the intersection of pop culture and food and thoroughly enjoys writing about both topics. Nowadays, you can find her testing the latest trendy TikTok recipe in her kitchen, decorating ornate, heart-shaped cakes (they're just more fun when they're heart-shaped), or enjoying Chicago's diverse and never-ending culinary scene.

Education

Julia has a bachelor's degree in English with a minor in anthropology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.