Kae Lani Palmisano is the Emmy Award-winning host of WHYY's Check, Please! Philly, a television show highlighting restaurants in the Philadelphia region, and the host and writer of Delishtory on PBS Food, a digital series exploring the history of food. She is also the food editor for Philadelphia magazine and the curious mind behind The Potluck newsletter. Her work has been featured in Best American Food and Travel Writing 2025, Food & Wine, The Philadelphia Inquirer, USA TODAY, and more.

As a storyteller and “edutainer,” Kae Lani is obsessed with the history and culture of cuisine. While some travelers follow their hearts, she has spent over a decade following her gut, researching foodways and culinary traditions across four continents. Her travels have taken her from exploring the Spice Route through the Middle East and Europe to foraging with the Māori in New Zealand. 

As a food writer and editor, she has whisked readers away to forage with chefs in Philadelphia, sip cocktails spiked with tarantula venom in Mexico City, indulge in Germany’s 1,000-year-old winemaking tradition, and explore the rural New Zealand countryside where movie director James Cameron has a farm. Her writing has also inspired home chefs to bring new flavors into their cooking, like making bread with heritage grains, fermenting produce, and baking with ruby chocolate, a chocolate with a natural pink color.

In her spare time, Kae Lani enjoys hanging out in the kitchen with her husband Jon and daughter Eureka, cooking through their cookbook collection, experimenting with fermentation, and preserving the bounty from their home garden.