Sauce Team

Allyson Mace, Founder

Allyson created and financed Sauce Magazine from her Tower Grove apartment 24 years ago to help elevate the culinary community she had worked in for many years prior to the inception of the magazine. 

Allyson has always been fascinated by food and the publishing industry (her father was a lifelong multi-city newspaper publisher). While juggling multiple restaurant jobs, she developed an online magazine and restaurant guide in 1999. She launched Sauce in print in 2001. Since that time, the Sauce brand has evolved into several ancillary products and events such as Sauce Food Truck Friday that serve and elevate the food-loving community in St. Louis. In February 2010, Allyson became the sole owner of Sauce Magazine and all its respective trademarks under her company, Bent Mind Creative Group, LLC.  In June 2011, Allyson was named to the "Most Influential Women In Business" list by the St. Louis Business Journal. She was also selected to serve on the STL Women In Media Panel representing print media. In October 2015 Allyson was awarded the prestigious "100 Most Influential Magazine Media Executives" national award by Folio Magazine. In March 2021 she became an operating partner of the Cannabis Seltzer brand Mighty Kind. A native New Yorker, Allyson currently resides in the Delmar Loop area and has long since considered St. Louis her home. She is an alum of The University of Missouri, St. Louis. She is an avid photographer and a fan and supporter of the local arts community. She enjoys excellent food, travel, the arts, great conversation and road trips in her 1966 Airstream with her trusty companion, Christina Fitzgerald, and dogos Edie the Sweetie (Frenchie) and Charlie (English Bulldog).

amace@saucemagazine.com


Meera Nagarajan, Executive Editor

Meera began working at Sauce in 2008 and is responsible for the design of Sauce Magazine. She has a masters in journalism with an emphasis in magazine design from Mizzou and she has a habit of hoarding all kinds of magazines at her desk, in her car and in her home. She also loves to recreate dishes from her travels and is mildly devastated when they don’t work out. She lives in Creve Coeur with her husband and kitten.

mnagarajan@saucemagazine.com


Lauren Healey, Digital Editor

Lauren is a longtime journalist who has honed her writing, reporting, editing and photography skills in various roles at newspapers, magazines and websites in the Midwest. Her time spent with Sauce since 2018 has bolstered her love of the local culinary scene, making her even more proud to call St. Louis home. In her free time, she’s passionate about music, history, travel and attempting to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

 

lhealey@saucemagazine.com


Iain Shaw, Managing Editor

Born and raised near Edinburgh, Scotland, Iain has been writing about food and drink, among other things, for over a decade. Before moving to St. Louis in 2018, he spent close to 15 years living in Beijing, China, where he was an editor on a number of city lifestyle magazines, also co-founding The Cleaver Quarterly, a magazine about Chinese food. He has also contributed to a number of St. Louis publications, as well as writing for Digiday, Vinepair, Today’s Hotelier and Roads & Kingdoms.

ishaw@saucemagazine.com


Michelle Volansky, Digital Creative Director

Michelle is responsible for Sauce's ad production and internal creative projects like logo development and event marketing support. She is a graduate of the Illustration program at Missouri State University and spends her non-Sauce time on freelance illustration projects, painting her nails and day drinking. Michelle is starry-eyed at Sauce and wants to eat everything.

mvolansky@saucemagazine.com


Amy Hyde, Events Coordinator and Listings Manager

When Amy isn’t wrangling food trucks for Sauce Magazine events, she can be found exploring her beloved St. Louis. There isn’t a dive bar or cash-only restaurant she doesn’t know and love. Throughout the years, in different capacities, she has been a part of planning the city's most popular events and believes her success stems from deep love of her city.  

ahyde@saucemagazine.com


Kelli Jones, Advertising Sales Manager

 

Kelli Graduated from the University of Northern Iowa with a BA in Political Science, and has worked in sales and/or advertising the entirety of her adult career. Her obsession with food and cooking began in college, when her mother gave her an electric skillet. She is outdoorsy in a patio or beer garden kind of way, and in her free time she likes growing her own herbs, fruits and veggies, making jewelry, and sipping cocktails on the beach.

kjones@saucemagazine.com


Contributors

Glenn Bardgett, wine writer

Glenn is wine director at Annie Gunn’s and The Smokehouse Market. He has been a member of the Missouri Wine and Grape Board for 30 years, taught at St. Louis Community College for 15 years and is a certified sommelier and specialist of wine who judges local, national and international competitions. Bardgett is also well known for his pants. 


Megan Gilmore, proofreader

Megan Gilmore joined Sauce as a proofreader in December 2016. She's a proud alum of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (Go Cougars!) and Kent State University. In her spare time, she enjoys running, traveling and cooking with her husband.


Adam Rothbarth, writer

Adam’s life revolves around a debilitating obsession with baking and eating bread, especially bagels and pizza. In addition to writing for Sauce, he has a master's in musicology and has contributed to Apple Music, Rolling Stone, Vice, Spin, and others. Now residing in Chicago, when not eating or writing, he can be found going to concerts or sitting on the patio at one of his favorite local bars. 


Ted and Jamie Kilgore, drink writers

Ted and Jamie have spent the last 20 years working as bartenders, and spirit/cocktail consultants and currently own and operate two bars, Planter's House and Small Change. Jamie is Bar Smarts Advanced Certified, and Ted holds a BAR Ready Certification from Beverage Alcohol Resource. When not traveling the world, eating drinking or working the couple enjoys hanging out with their Boston Terriers.


Kevin Korinek, writer

Kevin is a freelance journalist and photographer with a passion for Nashville hot chicken, craft beer and making homemade pie. You can usually find him on the weekends, flying kites in the park or rummaging vinyl sales for old jazz records. 


Michael Renner, critic and writer

Michael started eating at birth and hasn't stopped since. In between, he’s waited tables, tossed pizza dough and even wore a tuxedo and tastevin while working as a sommelier during grad school. He’s written about jazz, food and restaurants for national and local publications. He started writing for Sauce in 2006, and since 2008, he has been its restaurant reviewer. True to most of his life ambitions, he tied for second place in the Association of Food Journalists’ Best Restaurant Criticism category. As a side gig, he has a day job.


Amrita Song, writer

Amrita is the author of the blog, A Song in Motion. She has a passion for photographing food, as well as eating it. Her love for food stems from its ability to bring cultures together and from how good it feels to enjoy a delicious meal. She cooks often for her husband and toddler, she and loves putting together creative riffs on recipes to share with all of you. 


Matt Berkley, critic and writer

Matt has covered the good, the bad, and the downright ugly of St. Louis’ food and drink scene for more than 10 years. In addition to reviewing for Lunch Rush, Matt exercises his love for outdoor cooking with regular grilling recipe contributions. Matt has a master’s degree in history, an obsession with food books, high regard for his cast-iron pan and a large backyard in University City where he chases his 2-year-old son and spends all the time he can barbecuing, smoking, or grilling.


Stephanie Zeilenga, critic 

Stephanie Zeilenga has written about the local food scene for nearly five years. She’ll eat and drink (almost) anything, but she has a serious weakness for tacos, Thai food and a stiff whiskey cocktail. In her free time, she loves to try new recipes, bake bread and read about wine. On Saturdays in the summer, you can find her at the Tower Grove Farmers Market, obsessing over tomatoes or drinking a glass of rosé on a patio.


Jonathan Gayman, photographer

Jonathan is a commercial and editorial photographer with a focus on food, beverage and product photography. His keen eye for light and composition fuels thoughtful and inspired photography, whether he is shooting in St. Louis, Chicago, New York or around the country. Jonathan grew up in Pennsylvania, then spent a decade in New York City before moving to St. Louis in 2010 with his wife, Christina. An avid cook, Jonathan loves the STL food scene (but will never be on board with St. Louis-style pizza). 


Ashley Gieseking, photographer

Ashley is a still life and portrait photographer with an affinity for details. When she isn’t photographing chefs and industry professionals for Sauce, she can usually be found in the studio, shooting ad campaigns and hovering over a set with tweezers. 


Izaiah Johnson, photographer 

Izaiah is a local photographer, photo-retoucher and a failed plant whisperer. He is a Webster University graduate with a degree in photography. He loves to work on shoots that reflect his personality — fun, exciting and fun. Izaiah mainly works in commercial and editorial photography, but he loves to create fine art, as well. You can usually catch Izaiah hanging at his favorite coffee shop, Rise Coffee.


David Kovaluk, photographer

David Kovaluk is a visual artist living in St. Louis. He has a Bachelor's degree in photography from Webster University, and he currently works for St. Louis Public Radio as its creative everyman. The result is a mashup of graphic design, web design, photography and any other visual design challenges they throw at him. David is also a freelance designer and photographer. David is decidedly a cat person, loves a good DIY project, collects vintage cameras and lenses, and believes fluorite is the most beautiful mineral. 


Vidhya Nagarajan, illustrator

Vidhya is an illustrator from St. Louis. Some of her clients include Google, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Newsweek, among others; and her work has been recognized by the American Illustration, 3x3 and communication arts. Her favorite food is pizza. She is probably eating some right now.


Greg Rannells, photographer

In high school, Greg was voted Most Versatile by his class, an accolade he found rather amusing at the time. But since graduating college with a business degree, he's driven asphalt trucks, set dynamite and worked in surgery; he's been a disc jockey, a fashion photographer, and laser salesman; he's a bookbinder, a graphic designer, beekeeper, gardener, world traveler, cookbook judge for the International Association of Culinary Professionals and an award-winning food photographer. Recently he’s fixated on Thai and Lao food and fermentation. He always has something bubbling away on his kitchen counter. He's always busy and always interested in learning something new. 


Carmen Troesser, photographer

Carmen Troesser is a food and lifestyle photographer based in the Midwest. Growing up on her family's farm in rural Missouri, farm-to-table was a way of life. Her food photography combines her appreciation of the origin of food, her love of the culinary arts and her desire to make beautiful images. She has a bachelor’s degree in illustration and painting and a master’s degree in photojournalism from the University of Missouri and has lived in Utah, New York and France. She travels for assignments and is represented by Kathy Bruml and Jean Conlon of Bruml Conlon Artists Agents.