Nikelle Murphy

• In 2017, Nikelle traveled for work to experience the culture and food scene in Dubai. The week's agenda included brunch at a traditional Emirati tea house, visiting spice markets, and dining at Nusr-Et Dubai — one of Salt Bae's original steakhouses.
• The best Thanksgiving meal Nikelle ever cooked was a from-scratch beef Wellington, made using recipes and videos from Gordon Ramsay. Who needs turkey?
• Nikelle has been saving (some) money on her family's (enormous) Costco bills by cooking and canning her own tomato sauce. This year, she and her husband are planning to grow 12 tomato plants in their backyard garden.

Experience

Nikelle has worked in journalism for more than 15 years, but her passion for great food began in childhood, when her produce manager father taught her how to select the ripest, juiciest watermelons each summer. She got her professional start at the Syracuse New Times in college, a weekly paper focused on the city's culture. That led to a role as an education reporter at the York Dispatch—one of two competing daily papers in York, Pennsylvania. In 2015, she joined The Cheat Sheet, an Endgame360 website, as a writer and associate editor. She became the site's first senior editor for the Food, Drink & Travel section in 2017. Within the year, she was promoted to managing editor and collaborated with company leadership to rebrand the site as an entertainment-focused outlet in 2018. She went on to hold multiple editorial leadership roles, including editor-in-chief and vice president of product, during which time Endgame360 launched new websites dedicated to other areas of expertise. In 2022, Nikelle transitioned to freelance editing and writing while raising her young children. Her current work includes a focus on the food-centric writing she came to adore during her early days at The Cheat Sheet: She never misses a chance to cover a Top Chef alum or research the perfect method for scrambled eggs. She began writing for the Mashed brand in 2024.

Education

Nikelle has a bachelor's degree in journalism from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. While at Syracuse, she also double majored in political science.