Robyn Eckhardt has written on food and travel in Turkey, Europe and Asia for The New York Times, Travel+Leisure Southeast Asia, SBS Feast, Saveur, TASTE, and other publications. She was the founding Food Editor at Time Out Kuala Lumpur and is a former food columnist for Wall Street Journal Asia. Robyn has written food guides to Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam for Lonely Planet and contributed essays to The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets.
Robyn’s first cookbook Istanbul and Beyond: Exploring Turkey’s Diverse Cuisines (Rux Martin/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017) was shortlisted for an Art of Eating Prize and named a ‘Best Read of 2017’ by NPR. Istanbul and Beyond was included in ‘Best Cookbooks of 2017’ lists in Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Eating Well, Fine Cooking, Rachel Ray Magazine, Saveur, and other publications.
Robyn often collaborates with her partner, IACP award-winning food and travel photographer David Hagerman; together they publish the award-winning food blog EatingAsia.
Now based in northern Italy after twenty years in east and south east Asia, Robyn offers bespoke culinary excursions in Piemonte and Turkey.
Contact: robyn.eckhardt@gmail.com.
Twitter: @EatingAsia
Instagram: @IstanbulandBeyond
A sample of published work:
For The Economist‘s lifestyle magazine 1843: A feature on young farmers in Piemonte, Italy.
For Saveur: On pomegranate molasses, Malaysian palm sugar and Turkish cuisine.
For the New York Times: Restaurants in Taipei capitalising on the island’s bounty, sea urchin season on Spain’s Costa Brava, chasing anchovies on Turkey’s Black Sea coast, food market hopping in Aegean Turkey, exploring Cambodian flavors in Siem Reap.
For SBS Feast (Australia): A historic market neighbourhood in Chiang Mai, culinary adventures in north eastern Turkey’s cow country.
For Travel+Leisure Southeast Asia: Feasting in Taipei, dining out in Istanbul, indulging an obsession with chilies in Sichuan, China.
For Wall Street Journal Asia: Seasonal eating in Istanbul, the original artisan toast.
Robyn Eckhardt 
Hi Robyn, I was really touched the other day reading the article about your helping Ms Ooi to get her back to restarting her char kway teow business in Penang. I thought then what a wonderful person this NYT food writer is. And then this afternoon I saw you on Nat Geo bringing John Torode around the Chowrasta market in Penang. Wow! Talk about coincidences. So I thought I’d just drop in to say hi.
Here’s the article in case you haven’t read it: https://sg.news.yahoo.com/nyt-food-writer-helps-luck-171609837.html?nhp=1
Also, from further reading up on you and your good work, I stumbled upon your blog about your home renovation but not able to find the page on the finished product, if there is one. If it’s available for public access (the page I mean), could you please point me to it? Would love to see the transformation. Thank you.
Hi Happy, thanks for your comment. As you can see I have not updated this blog in ages, and though we have been
living in the house for over three years now I probably will not post finished photos for a while.
You can also find me (a bit more regularly from now on, hopefully) at my food blog eatingasia.typepad.com.
I can’t accept credit for the donations to Ms. Ng (her real name, it turns out) — all of that credit goes to the literally
hundreds of people who shared my Facebook post and/or came through with donations. We collected a little over RM 3,900
for her, and we’re thrilled to be able to deliver the balance of it to her in the next couple days. Again — with huge
thanks to Malaysians, Singaporeans and people of other nationalities who showed their concern by sharing and/or donating.
I like to think I did what anyone else in my position would have done, if they could.
All the best,
Robyn