Rebekah Peppler

Outstanding Young Alumni Award Winner 2012

Many UW Oshkosh journalism students love food, but not many combine their loves of journalism and the culinary arts, as well as Rebekah Peppler, does.

Since graduating from UW Oshkosh in 2008, Peppler’s work has appeared in many culinary books and magazines, including The New York Times, Bon Appetit, Real Simple and Rachael Ray Magazine. She is the author of Honey, a Short Stack Edition and her latest book, Aperitif, Cocktail Hour the French Way, is scheduled to be released in October 2018. Additionally, the 2015 Young Alumni Award winner has contributed to BuzzFeed Food, Food Network, Cooking Channel, and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

Peppler, who divides her time among Paris, New York and Los Angeles, still remembers the lessons learned in the classrooms of Clow.

“Studying journalism in college and getting a degree in journalism news/editorial fully set me up for success for the career path that I chose,” she said. “I write all about food, so it’s not the hard-hitting news, mostly recipes and personal stories, but having the background of fact-checking and sources and making sure I’m asking all the right questions and digging a little deeper, has given me an edge in the career I have now.”

Peppler hadn’t always known what she wanted to do. While at Oshkosh West High School, she took college-level classes offered to high school students. Those classes eventually led her to attend UWO. After graduation, she headed to the French Culinary Institute in New York City. Then Pepper embarked in an array of jobs that included writing, photography, food styling, and television production.

She learned the fine art of juggling multiple assignments from food styling photo shoots and videos to creating and testing recipes.

One thing remained constant – the care she takes to her writing. “I think the biggest lesson I learned through college and in my professional career is that your first draft is never right. Many times I’ve fallen in love with a turn of phrase or all the information I’ve put into a story or a book, then I go back and read it through or have someone read it through, and I realize most of it is crap.”

“It’s devastating every time. I say, ‘But I worked so hard, all that research, why can’t it just stay?’ That lesson I started learning in college, and I’m still learning it, but each year, I feel I’ve become a better writer because of it.”