Here’s a glimpse into my life beyond Food for Thought. In addition, you’ll find a more traditional bio on my LinkedIn page. Feel free to follow me there as well as across all my social media platforms.
Always a hands-on kinda guy, my first paying publishing gig was operating commercial printing presses when I was sixteen. Several more years of summer jobs brought me into contact with computerization in the corporate workplace. And my first paying assignment as a writer came a few years later creating one of “those” quizzes for Seventeen.
Putting all those pieces together, I founded one of the world’s first desktop publishing companies in the 1980s. The week Apple came out with its first true-font laser printer, I was in business! I’ve been a fan ever since!
Over the course of the 1970s through the 1990s, I was an author, contributor, and editor of traditional reference titles. These spanned topics from climate change, homelessness, the breakup of communism in Eastern Europe, and terrorism, to scholarly analysis of the U.S. Constitutional Amendments and a critique of the American legal system. I’ve been a contributor to H.W. Wilson’s reference series titles, including The Reference Shelf, Current Biography, World Authors, and World Artists. Other notable publishers and institutions featuring my work have included Newsweek, United Magazine, Gale Research, McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, Ginn Publishing Company, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Peat Marwick (KPMG), and Davis & Geck.
Ian Makay was born with the 1995 edition of Food for Thought. With that, came appearances on the Food Network. Then America Online invited me to become the web’s first online food celebrity, hosting a live bimonthly show—Global Holidays.
My AOL life also included the creation of a daily “Every Day’s a Holiday” column. Monthly features about food, holidays, and celebrations appeared in AOL’s electronic Gourmet Guide (The eGG). Fans of his Global Holidays show also received newsletters filled with information and original recipes based on each episode’s themes.
More food and holiday history and lore assignments appeared in Saveur magazine and in the Global Gourmet online magazine. Meanwhile, Food for Thought excerpts began appearing in various media outlets. After that, my observations on holidays and all things culinary continued to be cited in publications and online media. These have included FOX News and the James Beard Foundation’s JBFNotes.
Both as a hands-on volunteer and paid consultant, I’ve worked with an array of national, regional, and local nonprofits. Call me a soup-to-nuts kinda guy! I’ve cooked dinner for 65 guests at soup kitchens; sat on nonprofit boards; and developed multi-million dollar fundraising campaigns.
My own health issues with ME/CFS, cancer, and other diseases, have made it easy to imagine the challenges of others. So, advocating for people with disabilities, debilitating autoimmune diseases, and neurological illnesses for over 40 years has been a passion!
It has also been an honor to work within the traditional Western, integrative medical, wellness, and Asian arts communities. Leading workshops; participating in medical research; and working directly with those who choose to live life to the fullest regardless of their challenges continue to move me!
Food for Thought afforded me an additional platform for doing good. Consequently, a 1990s in-store version my Global Holidays show raised donations for local food-related charities on Long Island.
Subsequently, when I emerged on social media in 2010, picking up where I left off felt natural. Pictured here, I’m joining fellow food celebrities for a cookie-swap in New York City. Together, we raised money and awareness for a New Jersey-based childhood cancer charity.
Having worn a variety of hats over the course of a lifetime, people recognize me by a variety of names. So, whether you’ve known me as Ian “Mak” Makay, Matthew A. Kraljic, Matt, Matej, Mathieu, Mateo, Matvey, Mike, or any number of other even more colorful, questionable “handles”, just call me Mak.