Sofia Reino, Recipe Tester

A list of all the recipes Sofia Reino has tested.

A woman with sunglasses at the beach smiling.

Sofia Reino grew up in many kitchens. With her diplomat parents, Sofia lived a gypsy life, moving from one country to another and one cuisine to the next. Her passion for food began while she lived in Norway. At age nine, she’d run downstairs to the kitchen as soon as she finished her homework to help her mother and the cook prepare a variety of meals. The dishes were mostly Portuguese but with an international twist.

She spent each summer in Portugal, where again she enjoyed countless hours in the kitchen, this time with her avó (grandmother) and the kitchen helpers. Food and wellness were always important to her, though after finishing her architectural degree in Brooklyn, she followed the design and marketing profession.

In every place she lived, she had a small vegetable garden, volunteered at organic farms, and would keep on taking culinary courses. She even ended up becoming a plant-based personal chef, has been giving cooking workshops, and owned her own organic farm in Sintra. She is now based in Lisbon.

Since the first time she became a recipe tester for LC, she has loved every second to test even more recipes and enlarge her culinary fan. She also has had a chance to be a tester and developer for a few published chefs. Apart from design, marketing, and her two daughters, food is the center of her life and she loves to entertain and experiment in the kitchen.

Sofia has so many favorite recipes on the site and her all-time favorite is the Portuguese Duck Risotto. This is closely followed by the Flourless Chocolate-Vanilla Marble Cake, Shrimp and Grits, Goat Cheese with Olives, Lemon and Thyme, which no party can happen without, and the Raw Cranberry Sauce that is always on the Thanksgiving table! She could go on and on and on.

A plate filled with spicy roasted cauliflower florets.

Spicy Roasted Cauliflower

A perfectly cooked and gently spiced specimen of cruciferous loveliness. You’re seriously not going to be able to stop noshing this.

Seven oven fried drumsticks with different coatings on a white background.

Oven Fried Drumsticks

Some things never go out of style. Witness this throwback to the 50s recipe for drumsticks rolled in crumbs of any sort. Potato chips. Wasabi peas. Rice crackers.

A red bowl with Christmas Eve calamari--calamari, onion, garlic, red pepper flakes in a tomato sauce.

Christmas Eve Calamari

The much-ballyhooed Italian Christmas classic, Feast of the Seven Fishes, stars one fish in Domenica Marchetti’s home. Calamari. And it’s the centerpiece of her Christmas Eve dinner.

Squares of chocolate chip crisps on a sheet of parchment paper.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Crisps

Crisp as a cracker. Less sweet than a cookie. And certain to be safe from the kids as they have a distinct adult dark chocolate allure.

A stack of four ground turkey sliders plus one resting on its side with lemon wedges on a cutting board.

Ground Turkey Sliders

If ever there was an unabashedly, unapologetically girlie burger, this is it. Still, we’ve seen guys polish them off without complaint.

A wedge of white pizza on a piece of parchment.

White Pizza

We find this lovely, albeit subtly flavored, little number to be one of the simpler pleasures in life. We think you’ll concur.

Two ground chicken meatballs on slider buns with a toothpick skewered through them.

Ground Chicken Meatballs

These subtly flavored, relatively healthful (shhhh!) sliders are the sleeper hit at The Meatball Shop. Not hard to understand why.

A sliced steak chimichurri with a gravy boat filled with chimichurri on the side.

Steak Chimichurri

Chimichurri-induced happiness can be yours with this foolproof, fuss-free, Argentine-approved answer to what’s for dinner.

A single basic crepe, folded into quarters on a sheet of parchment with two lemon wedges beside it.

Basic Crepes

A simple, step-by-step recipe for the classic French crepe that can easily be mastered by anyone. Yes, anyone. Including you.

A pot of smooth mashed potatoes--made with plenty of butter, cream--with a wooden spoon and pat of butter on top

Velvet Mashed Potatoes

No mere mash, this creamy potato purée owes its uber velvetiness to truly indecent amounts of butter and cream. And we mean that in the best possible way.

Momofuku fried chicken pieces on a piece of brown paper, covered with Octo Vin, with chopsticks piled beside.

Momofuku’s Fried Chicken

This flour-free fried bird is contrary to everything we know about fried chicken. Or think we know. That’s exactly what makes it so darn genius.

A wooden table with a pink gingham bag with 7 brown sugar cookies in it and a label.

Brown Sugar Cookies

These beauties aren’t unlike classic sugar cookies in terms of ease and appeal. They’re just a little richer and a lot less expected.

A blue platter filled with rabbit confit, garnished with twigs of rosemary and lemon halves.

Rabbit Confit

Rabbit confit is so delicious, so falling-off-the-bone tender, you’ll wonder why you don’t eat it more often. Made even better with loads of spices, it’s rather elegant, too.

A deep roasting pan filled with roast chicken and vegetables

Moroccan-Spiced Roast Chicken

What do we adore most about roast chicken? The fix-it-and-forget-about-it-ness of it. That and the countless ways to fancy it up. Here’s one of our fuss-free favorites.