About Betty Teller

The daughter of a newspaper editor and a reporter, I trained as a writer practically from birth. (My parents’ response to “A” papers was, “That’s great, but wouldn’t this have been a better word choice?”)  After earning a cum laude degree in history from Barnard College and an M.A. in American Studies/Museum Studies from George Washington University, I put my verbal and other skills to work in a career as an exhibition developer, shaping and crafting exhibition content and writing labels, text panels, and catalogue essays at the Smithsonian Institution. Along the way, I also picked up professional cooking credentials from L’Academie de Cuisine in Bethesda, MD. 

After 20 years at the Smithsonian, I moved to Napa in 1998 as founding Exhibitions Director of Copia: The American Center for Wine, Food & the Arts. At Copia I wore as many hats as Bartholemow Cubbins: curating the permanent exhibition, writing or editing the text and wall labels for more than 50 exhibitions, heading up the publications area, supervising and copy editing the quarterly newsletter and serving as in-house writer and editor. Oh, and I also directed the public food and wine programs for two years.

Since leaving Copia in 2005, (free at last!) I’ve pursued my interest in food, wine and culinary history as a writer and copy editor. In addition to my regular column in the Napa Register — which will be stored on this blog — I have completed numerous feature assignments for the newspaper and national magazines. I’m working on a few book ideas, including the idea of turning these columns into a book. Let me know what you think!