Russ Parsons is the food editor and columnist of the Los Angeles Times. He has been writing about food for nearly thirty years. Almost twenty-five of those have been spent at The Los Angeles Times, where he has been both managing editor and deputy editor. Parsons is the author of the cookbooks How to Read a French Fry (Houghton Mifflin, 2001) and How to Pick a Peach (Houghton Mifflin, 2007).

In 2008, he was inducted into the James Beard Foundation's Who's Who of Food and Beverage. Parsons has won many food journalism awards, including those from the International Association of Culinary Professionals, the Association of Food Journalists, the James Beard Foundation, and the University of Missouri Lifestyle Journalism Awards. How to Read a French Fry was a finalist for two Julia Child cookbook awards. How to Pick a Peach was named one of the best 100 books of the year by both Publisher's Weekly and Amazon.