About TABLE — The table, whether it’s in the kitchen, set beautifully in the dining room, or in the backyard for a summer soiree, is where we come to share life. TABLE acts as the platform, and the forum for exploring the most progressive, creative, curious, unexpected and culturally rich topics every season.
Whether it be our vibrant food culture, a cutting-edge design scene, a growing neighborhood, or a flourishing educational climate, what we discuss around TABLE will always spark deeper conversation, consideration, and exploration.
WHO WE ARE
Justin Matase and Keith Recker
Keith Recker | Editor in Chief
Keith Recker is Editor in Chief and Co-Owner of TABLE Magazine, where he directs editorial coverage of food and drink culture, interior design, fashion, travel, and the arts across the publication’s Pittsburgh, New Mexico, and online editions.
Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Keith spent 30 years working in New York, Rome, San Francisco, and beyond before returning to his hometown. His career includes leadership roles as VP of home furnishings at Gump’s San Francisco, Bloomingdale’s, and Saks Fifth Avenue, along with more than 35 years of experience in media content creation, merchandising, licensing, and global artisan business development across nearly 60 countries.
For almost 20 years, Keith has worked as an independent color and trend forecaster, providing color intelligence to industry leaders including Pantone, WGSN, Stylus, and the Color Association of the United States (CAUS). He is a co-founder of the Open Source Colour Association (OSCA), an organization dedicated to transparent, accessible color forecasting.
Keith is the author of three books on color and craft: PANTONE: The 20th Century in Color (Chronicle Books, 2012), published in eight languages; True Colors: World Masters of Natural Dyes and Pigments (Schiffer Books, revised second edition, 2020); and Deep Color: The Shades That Shape Our Souls (Schiffer Books, 2022), published in two languages. His essays have also appeared in many publications and platforms including the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Museum of Art and Design, Brooklyn Rail, The Santa Fe New Mexican. He has contributed chapters on color to Proud South, published by Edelkoort Inc, and to Michael Mandapati’s book, Modern Kilim, published by Simon and Schuster.
A frequent speaker on color perception and forecasting, Keith has presented for organizations including Carnegie Mellon University, Parsons, University of New Mexico, Museum of International Folk Art, ASID, and others, discussing topics ranging from the psychology of color, emerging consumer trend research, marketing, and leadership. He has appeared on numerous podcasts including: The Color Authority, EcoFashion Hub, Botanical Colors, and The Long Thread.
Why I Write About Design, Color, Culture and Food
I’ve spent my career at the intersection of color, design, and culture, as a trend forecaster for companies like Pantone and WGSN, and now as Editor in Chief of TABLE Magazine. As a native Pittsburgher, I know its neighborhoods, its restaurants, its makers and shopkeepers, and the design history embedded in its architecture, because I’ve lived among them for years, not because I researched them for a story.
Food writing comes from an equally personal place. My passion for cooking began in the kitchen of an accomplished home cook, watching, learning, and eventually cooking independently, and deepened during the years I spent living in Italy, where a world of farm-to-table ingredients, exacting technique, and deeply traditional dishes took root in me. That grounding shapes how I write about Pittsburgh’s restaurant scene today: I taste with an eye toward technique and tradition, and I know the difference between a dish that’s trendy and one that’s genuinely well-made.
I write about Pittsburgh’s arts, culture, design, and food scenes because I believe this city deserves coverage as sharp and considered as what you’d find in any major metro. I know how to do that. My work forecasting global color and design trends means I bring an outside-in perspective to local stories: I can tell you not just what’s happening in Pittsburgh, but how it fits into broader currents in design, taste, and culture. My job, every day, is to notice what’s worth paying attention to before it’s obvious, and that’s exactly what I try to do for TABLE’s readers.
Areas of expertise: color theory and forecasting, textile and artisan craft, interior design, luxury materials, editorial strategy, food, dining, and photo styling
Contact: keith@tablemagazine.com Read Keith’s articles here: tablemagazine.com/author/keith-recker Follow him on Instagram: @TheChromosapien.
Justin Matase | Publisher and Co-Owner
Justin Matase is Publisher and Co-Owner of TABLE Magazine and TABLE Media, where he leads business strategy, advertising, partnerships, audience development, and growth across the company’s print, digital, and experiential platforms. He acquired TABLE in January 2020 alongside Editor in Chief Keith Recker, taking over from founder Christina French and steering the company’s expansion into digital content, events, and new coverage areas including fashion, design, and travel.
His work spans TABLE Magazine Pittsburgh, TABLE Magazine New Mexico, and SHADY AVE, with a particular focus on strengthening local journalism, supporting independent businesses, and expanding the reach of regional food, culture, design, arts, and lifestyle coverage. At TABLE, Justin works closely with businesses, cultural organizations, nonprofits, restaurants, and community partners to develop campaigns and editorial initiatives that connect organizations with engaged regional audiences.
Based in Pittsburgh, Justin has spent more than a decade in publishing, media strategy, advertising, and digital marketing. Before TABLE, he was Associate Publisher of the Pittsburgh City Paper, where he led business, sales, marketing, and strategy operations and helped drive the paper’s transformation into a leading digital-first regional news outlet. Earlier in his career he worked in advertising sales at Steel City Media and in business development at Matrix Solutions where he worked with the world’s largest broadcast television and radio groups. He is also the founder of Yellow Bridge Digital, a digital marketing agency specializing in integrated advertising, audience targeting, search, social media, and campaign strategy.
Justin is active in Pittsburgh’s civic and journalism community. He has served on the boards of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Pittsburgh and the Association of Alternative Newsmedia, and was the vice chair of the University of Pittsburgh’s Student News advisory board, where he oversaw the finance committee of The Pitt News, the university’s student newspaper.
Areas of expertise: publishing and media business strategy, digital-first transformation, advertising and revenue strategy, audience development, integrated and digital marketing, Pittsburgh media and civic affairs
Contact: justin@tablemagazine.com Read Justin’s articles: tablemagazine.com/author/jmatase Follow: LinkedIn
Star Laliberte | Director of Operations, Social Media Manager, and Event Manager
Star Laliberte is TABLE Magazine’s Social Media Manager, Event Manager, and Director of Operations. Born and raised just outside of Pittsburgh, she brings an insider perspective to the coverage she produces and coordinates for the magazine.
Growing up in a food-obsessed Italian family with strong roots in music and the creative arts shaped Star’s areas of interest — food, flowers, and music — and those threads run through her byline at TABLE, where she writes recipes, cocktail features, and community and events coverage for a Pittsburgh audience. Her work includes coordinating and planning TABLE’s major events, including How to Pittsburgh, the Cocktail Shake-Off, TABLE’s VIP hospitality presence at Family House Polo, and the magazine’s annual Holiday Bake-Off.
Beyond events and editorial content, Star manages TABLE’s social media content calendar and email programs. She also supports the advertising and marketing teams behind TABLE’s sponsored content and partner features, working across editorial and business functions to keep TABLE’s Pittsburgh presence — in print, online, and in person — running smoothly.
Read more of Star’s work on tablemagazine.com and pittsburgh.tablemagazine.com.
Why I Write
I write about Pittsburgh because there’s nothing I love more than sharing the food, events, and people that make this city feel like home. Whether I’m covering places to eat Italian food, a neighborhood nonprofit creating change in our city, or a beloved family recipe, I want readers to feel that sense of connection. I want them to know what’s happening, who’s behind it, and why it matters. At TABLE, that means bringing both a reporter’s curiosity and an operator’s eye for detail to everything from a farmers’ market guide to a room full of guests at one of our own events.
Camden Leeds | Creative Director
Camden Leeds is Creative Director at TABLE Media, overseeing visual direction across TABLE Magazine’s Pittsburgh and New Mexico editions and tablemagazine.com. He leads art direction, layout, and brand identity for the magazine, shaping the look and feel of our coverage of food and drink, design and fashion, and lifestyle and culture in print and digital formats. Reflecting TABLE’s commitment to authentic regional storytelling, Camden constructs a consistent visual standard rooted in local sensibility, with a commitment to constant evolution and improvement.
Camden joined TABLE Media in 2016, bringing 15 years of experience in editorial and brand design. Prior to TABLE, he worked at Whitaker House Publishing and Seeds Creative — all while running his own independent studio, 1412design, a Pittsburgh-based boutique shop spanning branding, graphic design, interior design, web, and photography. His client roster includes BET, Harlequin, and Beam Suntory, alongside hospitality and food entities like Damn Good Hospitality, District Winery DC, Burgh’ers Brewing, Fort Pitt Piano Co., Della Terra, Red Ribbon Soda, Dacha Docks Beer Garden, Con Alma, and Foxhole Tavern, plus new-brand development in Washington D.C., Fort Lauderdale, and Pittsburgh.
Camden specializes in editorial layout, photo direction, print production, digital design systems, and brand identity, all of which are grounded in a strong aesthetic point of view, technical fluency, and a clear sense of how to communicate visually. At TABLE, beyond laying out every page that goes to print, he’s created and art directed features on hot dogs, spritzes, and Bloody Marys, among others — proof that his eye for storytelling extends as easily to the page as to the plate.
Why I Design
I design for TABLE because good design should feel like it belongs to a place — Pittsburgh has its own rhythm, its own light, its own way of gathering around a table, and I want every page to feel like it grew out of that rather than being dropped onto it. Whether I’m laying out a spread on a chef’s tasting menu or building a brand system from scratch, I’m chasing the same thing: a clear point of view, executed with craft. Design is how I tell a story before a single word gets read.
Janet Wizig | Advertising Director
Since 2014, Janet has served as the director of advertising for TABLE Magazine. Before joining TABLE, she worked for several local and national publications, as well as for advertising agencies in Houston, Chicago, and Dallas. She was born and raised in Waco, Texas, and graduated from the University of Texas in Austin with a BS in Communications. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her family and friends and loves taking ballet classes and traveling. She lives with two dogs and a cat… and a human or two as well. Contact
Mark Chutko | Associate Publisher
Mark has 35 years of advertising sales experience in various media, including newspaper, radio, magazine, television, internet, and event marketing. Mark creates effective cross-channel campaigns for advertisers, while overseeing distribution and circulation at TABLE Magazine. As Associate Publisher at TABLE for the past eight years, Mark has enjoyed seeing the growth of the publication along with the transformation from a food and drink quarterly to an upscale bi-monthly lifestyle magazine. He lives in Ross Township with his wife, Diana Bucco, and has three children. Mark enjoys golf, bowling, biking, and spending quality time with family and friends. Contact
Stephanie Cravotta | Director of Digital Advertising
Stephanie has been in media sales for over a decade, working across print, radio, and digital platforms. Early in her career, she moved to North Texas, where she cut her teeth in sales, climbing the ranks to Advertising Director. Born and raised in Western Pennsylvania, she and her husband were happy to relocate to Pittsburgh in 2016. She joined TABLE in 2021. Contact
Laura Petrilla | Principal Photographer
Laura Petrilla is a Pittsburgh-based editorial and commercial photographer. Her range of work includes food/tabletop, people, and interiors. The diversity of her work allows her to find a balance while keeping things fresh and inspiring. She collaborates while bringing her photography to life through the use of vivid color and lighting. When not photographing, she enjoys having fun with her daughters. Contact
Dave Bryce | Principal Photographer
Photographer Dave Bryce has earned a reputation for capturing the beauty and
essence of a space. His passionate study of space and light is evident in his work, and fuels the exploration of depth and dimension in his photographs. Dave is also a commercial and editorial food photographer, where his technical mastery and keen sense of partnership with chefs and stylists allow him to create visually appealing and appetizing images for a range of publications and clients. Contact
CONTRIBUTORS
Anna Franklin | Contributing Editor
Anna Calabrese Franklin is TABLE Magazine’s food stylist and recipe developer, shaping the visual and culinary identity behind TABLE’s recipes and restaurant features. A Pittsburgh native, Anna graduated from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania Academy of Culinary Arts, where she trained in classical and contemporary technique before spending many years cooking in restaurant kitchens and photo studios around the city.
That hands-on restaurant experience — line cooking, recipe execution, and an eye for how food actually behaves under heat, light, and time — became the foundation for her transition into food styling, where she now shapes how TABLE’s dishes are recipe-tested, plated, and photographed for both print and digital. Her work appears throughout the magazine’s food coverage, from large-scale entertaining features to Pittsburgh restaurant round-ups styled alongside photographers Dave Bryce and Laura Petrilla.
Beyond her work at TABLE, Anna channels her recipe-development instincts into Bazaaa Sauce, a Pittsburgh-based hot sauce microbrand she founded that pairs vinegar-forward heat with fresh Fresno peppers — flavors she developed with the same technique and palate she brings to TABLE’s kitchen. She’s taking a break from Bazaaa to care for her young son but hopes to resume her hot sauce career at some point. Read more about her work at TABLE here.
Why I Cook and Style Food:
I got into food styling because I wanted to bring the same discipline I learned in restaurant kitchens to the way food looks on the page. A dish only works if it tastes right and looks like something you’d actually want to eat — not overworked, not fussy, just true to what’s on the plate. At TABLE, that means testing a recipe until it’s right, then styling it so a reader can practically taste it through the photo. It’s the same instinct that led me to start my own hot sauce line: get the flavor right, then make sure it looks as good as it tastes.
Gabe Gomez | Editor at Large
Gabe Gomez is an Online and Social Media Editor at TABLE Magazine. He is the author of two poetry collections and a marketing executive at the University of New Mexico Foundation. He lives in Albuquerque.
Sara Ghedina | Contributing Editor
Born in Italy, Sara came to San Francisco 20 years ago. In her spare time, she started taking pictures of food for her blog and documenting her experiments with cooking, and now she works full-time as a food, still life, and portrait photographer.
