Janet is a Freelance Reporter/Producer at DNAinfo.com Chicago covering food and drink.

She comes to DNAinfo.com after 13 years at the Sun-Times, the last four as food editor. She joined the paper in 1998 as a sports editorial assistant. She was a features reporter and general assignment metro reporter, during which time she started a food news beat.

Janet has been nominated twice for a James Beard Foundation Journalism Award, for a 2007 story that used DNA testing to show mislabeling of fish at sushi restaurants and a 2011 series about a 57-year-old beginner home cook.

A Kansas native, Janet attended the University of Illinois at Chicago on a tennis scholarship and worked for three years at the American Bar Association before journalism came calling. She lives with her husband and two daughters in the Irving Park neighborhood, dangerously close to Hot Doug's, Urban Belly and Kuma's.

Fun fact: In 1999, Janet ate nine Krispy Kremes in the car from Midway Airport to the Sun-Times. She worked the night shift that evening with no ill effects.