Hello, I'm Delia Jo!

Hi, I'm Delia Jo Bracken Richmond (FKA Delia Jo Ramsey), probably most known as the Queen of Queso. 

I'm a lifelong storyteller, a 16 year Southern-born food and travel writer, published author, and woman who's walked through loss, addictive behaviors, reinvention, neurodivergence, a brain injury, reinvention, and healing -- still wearing my boots and searching for light at every table. 

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I began my career as Dining With Delia Jo in Dallas in 2009, then segued back home to my Grandma Bracken's roots in Nashville in 2017, reclaiming my seat at a table I tried to burn to the ground. I've spotlighted Nashville restaurants, championed chefs worldwide, and appeared as a food expert on national and local television and radio while also authoring my first book (all about cocktails) and battling my own worst enemy--alcohol. Behind the scenes, I was fighting constant battles with alcohol, myself, deep grief, and what I finally learned at 42 was masking high functioning autism my entire life. 

Drinks helped quiet the noise until they didn't anymore, and on the week my book Nashville Cocktails debuted in September 2024, I traded the bottle for something better: an alcohol-free, sacred life or clarity, connection, and queso. I got officially diagnosed with high-functioning autism, got honest with myself, and fell in love with someone who sees all my "broken" shattered pieces and still calls them beautiful. 

Now, I'm fully committed to using my voice to tell stories that matter. Not just about what's on the plate, but what's happening all around it. I write about all things food and restaurants, but also about re-discovering my faith, sobriety, neurodivergence, resilience, and Southern culture with sparkle and soul. Whether I'm creating a reel about the hottest chicken ever, sharing the ache of losing two parents too young, or singing karaoke sober in a honky-tonk -- I'm finally showing up as my full, unfiltered self. 

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This refreshed site is more than a "food blog" or another BS influencer in it for the wrong reasons. It's my personal newsroom, my healing place, and a little corner of the internet where glitter meets grit. 

Welcome to the table. There's room for you here.