For years Laurie Knoop was renowned in her small circle of family and friends for her creative and imaginative cooking and entertaining. It was a natural step to pursue a career in food media. Once her daughter was grown, she moved back to New York City and attended the Institute of Culinary Education. With a friend's encouragement, she decided that food styling was the next step.

Laurie then apprenticed for the next five years with some of the best food stylists on the East Coast. She has worked as a recipe tester, recipe developer, food writer, food-stylist assistant and food stylist for all varieties of media. She now owns Studio 129 NYC, a food-photography rental studio in Harlem. Her clients include Villa Roma Enterprises, Orange Magazine, Minute Rice, Weis Markets and Chile Pepper Magazine, among others.