Layne Mosler

Bio

In May 2007, after 18 months in Buenos Aires, I turned to the city's taxistas for help in unearthing its greatest food treasures. Taxi Gourmet (www.taxigourmet.com) grew out of my passion for tango. When I started dancing tango I was taking cabs regularly. I discovered that taxi drivers were teaching me more about the city than anyone else. So I combined my fascination with them - and their underground knowledge of Buenos Aires - with my obsession for fiercely local food. In June 2009, I transplanted my Taxi Gourmet adventures to New York, where the city's 13,000 cabbies have started guiding me to Gotham's culinary riches. So far, I've sampled Ghanaian in the Bronx, Indian-Chinese in Queens, and Haitian food in Hell's Kitchen – and the adventures have only just begun. I majored in cultural anthropology, harvested olives in Italy, became a licensed forklift driver and worked for a series of nonprofits before venturing to Argentina in 2005 to launch my food writing career. Currently, I write the food column for South American Explorer and contribute regularly to Time Out.