Recipe for success

For Kelly Vaughan ’17, the focus is on food

By Mary Howard
Portraits by Nikki Estephan

“My family definitely fostered my love of food,” says Kelly Vaughan ’17. Growing up in Bristol, Connecticut, she was the kid who enjoyed baking with her mother and tuning into the Food Network every day after school. One of her favorite Christmas gifts as a child was a Magic Bullet blender, and by the time she was in high school, she had subscriptions to Martha Stewart Living and Bon Appétit magazines.

“My parents cooked dinner most evenings, and we came together [with extended family] for holidays that centered around food,” she says.

Now a freelance food writer, editor, and recipe developer, Vaughan collaborates with bloggers and content creators, providing everything from recipe development and testing to marketing, cookbook editing, and blog development. “Depending on the client, I might ghostwrite a blog post or newsletter, brainstorm new recipe ideas, or test a recipe that they developed, making sure it comes together as written and the instructions are clear,” she explains.

She also writes for various websites and magazines, including Food Network, King Arthur Baking, The Kitchn, The Pioneer Woman, and—coming full circle—Bon Appétit. In addition, she’s penning her own cookbook, TEE UP: A Golf Cocktail Book (Chronicle Books), which is set to be released in spring 2028.

“Every day is different,” says Vaughan. “I could be in the kitchen all day developing or testing recipes or sitting in front of my computer, writing. There are days when I make three trips to Whole Foods to stock up on ingredients.” But she wouldn’t have it any other way. “I love what I do,” she says.

And so do her clients, including Alex Snodgrass, the culinary entrepreneur and recipe developer behind the lifestyle and food brand The Defined Dish and the author of three New York Times best-selling cookbooks. She hired Vaughan to help with editorial and recipe content for her blog and with search engine optimization. “Kelly is thoughtful, hardworking, and always professional,” says Snodgrass.

While Vaughan wasn’t initially sure what direction to pursue in college—“I was interested in cooking, theater, and writing”—she was certain about where to go. “My fourth-grade teacher was John Dauphinee [’92], and he took my class on a field trip to see the College back then. I loved it,” she recalls.

She says she felt the same way when she revisited the campus as a high-school student. “Trinity was appealing because the liberal arts curriculum meant I could explore my varied interests,” she says. Vaughan majored in English and American studies and honed her writing skills as a contributing writer and editor for The Trinity Tripod.

She also credits writing workshops with Associate Professor of English Ethan Rutherford with helping her find her voice as a writer, though Rutherford disagrees. “She is the one who has done all the work,” he says. “Our class gave her permission to take her own work seriously and to see the process of drafting and revision—the work it takes to make something better—as a valuable use of time.” Rutherford adds that Vaughan’s writing, especially her personal essays, “were sharp, interesting, and read, even at that early stage, like publishable magazine pieces.”

The honor student’s accolades for writing also include receiving Trinity’s Ann Petry Book Prize for her essay “Southern Sophistication or Repressed Racism: An Exploration of Civil War Memories and Regional Identity in the South.”

Prior to graduating, Vaughan was set on a career at a food magazine—“that was the dream, anyway”—but found it difficult to get hired. “There was a lot of competition,” she says.

Not one to give up, she did freelance writing for food and lifestyle magazines, including Real Simple and Hartford Magazine, while continuing to apply for jobs. After a few months, she took a position as a line cook at Àvert Brasserie, a French restaurant in West Hartford.

“Honestly? I didn’t love it,” she recalls. “It was intense and physically tough, but looking back, I am so grateful for my time there. I wouldn’t be where I am without it,” she says.

After about a year and a half at the restaurant, she decided to go back on the job market. Living at home, she freelanced while applying for magazine work. “Within three months, I landed a job in New York City as an associate digital food editor with MarthaStewart.com,” she says.

There she wrote and published four to five stories daily on service-driven cooking, including how-tos, ingredient explainers, interviews with chefs, and trending food news. She honed her skills in search engine optimization and served as an on-air personality in cooking videos for a Homeschool with Martha series during the COVID-19 pandemic. And, yes, she met Stewart a few times.

Two years later, she took a position as a staff writer and then a staff editor with the popular food and e-commerce website Food52, where she edited digital food content, created and tested recipes, and managed freelancers, among other work. Former Food52 colleague Rebecca Firkser, now a test-kitchen editor at Bon Appétit, said of Vaughan, “I thought, ‘Here is someone working hard and doing all the right things [to achieve success in the industry.]’ ”

In 2022, Vaughan became a recipe editor for NBC’s TODAY, where she oversaw recipe development for branded partnerships and managed a team of freelance recipe developers and food photographers. “It was an interesting cross between editorial and commerce-driven content,” she says.

While in that position, Vaughan also had the opportunity to spend the day with the New York Mets at their clubhouse, interviewing the chefs who cook for the team and chatting with players. A little outside of her daily responsibilities at TODAY, Vaughan says, “it was a once-in-lifetime opportunity” that she couldn’t pass up.

In May 2025, she experienced something that she says is inevitable in media—she was laid off from her job at TODAY. “I spent all of about 18 hours wondering what I was going to do before I started to map out what a freelance career could look like,” she says. “Never did I imagine that it would be as fulfilling, interesting, or varied of a career as it is. I’ve never been busier or happier professionally than I am right now.”

She says she also is overjoyed in her new job as mom to daughter Lucy, who was born in May to Vaughan and her husband, Evan Turiano ’16, a visiting assistant professor of public policy and law at Trinity. The two met as students in fall 2015 in Scott Gac’s “Civil War and Reconstruction” seminar, she says.

Turiano shares his wife’s love of food and “is the absolute best taste tester,” says Vaughan. “He tries everything I make, and I rely heavily on his feedback to ensure that a recipe is as good as it can be!”

Festive holiday scones

Recipes and Photos by Kelly Vaughan ’17

Cranberry, Sage, and Fennel Scones

Think of this bite as Thanksgiving stuffing in the form of a breakfast scone. They’re a little sweet, a little savory, and a delicious addition to your holiday table. Frozen cranberries are easier to find year-round, and they also help the scones stay moist.

Prep Time: 20 minutes, plus resting time
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Yield: 8 scones

Ingredients

For the Scones

• 1¼ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

  

• 1¼ cups cake flour
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed
• ¾ teaspoon dried sage
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 stick (½ cup) unsalted butter, chilled and grated
• 1¼ cups frozen cranberries
• ½ cup cold buttermilk, plus more for brushing
• 1 large egg, beaten

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 400℉. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, cake flour, sugar, crushed fennel seeds, dried sage, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. Add the grated butter and, using a fork or your fingers, toss to combine until the butter is well coated in flour. Add the cranberries and stir until coated. Add the buttermilk and beaten egg and gently stir until the dough begins to come together but is still shaggy.
4. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead lightly until the dough forms. Pat into a 7-inch-round and 1-inch-thick circle. Wrap the disc in plastic wrap and transfer to the refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes.
5. Slice the disc into 8 triangles, then transfer the scones to the prepared baking sheet, placing them 1 to 2 inches apart. Brush the tops lightly with buttermilk.
6. Bake for 22 to 25 minutes or until the tops are golden brown and the scones are firm to the touch. Let the scones cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Store the cooled scones in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Gingerbread Scones

Start your morning with a scone that tastes like the holidays. This recipe calls for a combination of all-purpose flour and cake flour, which gives the scones body and structure while still keeping them light. Grating a stick of frozen butter ensures that the butter will be evenly dispersed throughout the dough and helps to create towering layers. Be careful not to overwork the dough to prevent the scones from being too dense and chewy; mix the dough until it just starts to come together, but know that it will still be a bit dry and shaggy.

Prep Time: 20 minutes, plus resting time
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Yield: 8 scones

Ingredients

For the Scones

• 1¼ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 1¼ cups cake flour
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1½ teaspoons ground ginger
• ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 stick (½ cup) cold unsalted butter, grated
• 1 large egg, beaten
• ½ cup cold buttermilk, plus more for brushing
• 2 tablespoons molasses
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Glaze

• ½ cup powdered sugar
• 2-3 tablespoons heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• grated nutmeg, to garnish

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 400℉. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, cake flour, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. Add the grated butter and, using a fork or your fingers, toss to combine until the butter is well coated in flour. Add the beaten egg, buttermilk, molasses, and vanilla and gently stir until the dough just begins to come together but is still shaggy.
4. Transfer the dough to a floured surface and lightly knead into a smooth 7-inch-round and 1-inch-thick circle. Wrap the disc in plastic wrap and transfer to the refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes.
5. Slice the disc into 8 triangles, then transfer the scones to the prepared baking sheet, placing them 1 to 2 inches apart. Brush the tops lightly with buttermilk.
6. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes or until the tops are golden brown and the scones are firm to the touch. Let the scones cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
7. Meanwhile, make the glaze: In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, heavy cream, and vanilla extract until smooth.
8. Drizzle the scones with the glaze, then sprinkle with grated nutmeg.