Mark Sohn, Ph.D. and recntly retired Professor of Educational Psychology at Pikeville (Kentucky) College, is a foods author, recipe developer, newspaper columnist, cooking teacher, food stylist, and photographer. He served as the food and cooking editor for The Encyclopedia of Appalachia .

Sohn is from a family of cooks. As a young man, his father, Fred, worked in Germany as a flour miller, test baker, and cereal chemist. Mark has four brothers who also preserve, cook, bake, and critique food.

Sohn has been writing about food since 1988 and has three published cookbooks. His 1996 book, Mountain Country Cooking: A Gathering of the Best Recipes from the Smokies to the Blue Ridge, was a 1997 James Beard Foundation nominee for Book of the Year in the category Food of the Americas. He served as the food and cooking editor for The Encyclopedia of Appalachia which was published by the University of Tennessee Press in March of 2006. His latest book, Appalachian Home Cooking was published by the University Press of Kentucky in October of 2005. He is currently working on a book about Kentucky's bourbon industry.