Morgan Murphy

Morgan Murphy is an American author, Captain in the United States Navy Reserve, former national security advisor to Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville, and former press secretary to the U.S. Secretary of Defense. Journalism career Murphy began his career after Rupert Murdoch took note of the student newspaper Murphy edited while at Birmingham–Southern College. The resulting internship at The New York Post led to his first major byline in 1994. In 1996, Murphy joined Vanity Fair after meeting Graydon Carter in an elevator at Condé Nast. From 1998 to 2000, Murphy worked as a reporter for Forbes under Jim Michaels, and regularly covered small business, entertainment, and the automotive sectors. In 2000, he joined Southern Living and served as the magazine's food critic, executive editor, and national spokesman. The magazine’s parent company, Time Inc., would later publish four of Murphy's five books. He has appeared on the Travel Channel's American Grilled, The Today Show, Fox & Friends, Fox News, CNN, Sirius XM, Food Talk, Car Talk, NPR, the Speed Channel, and QVC. Books published as author Murphy's first book, I Love You – Now Hush, co-authored with author Melinda Rainey Thompson and released in 2010, was named the gold humor book of the year by the American Library Association. Murphy's cookbook Off the Eaten Path: Favorite Southern Dives and 150 Recipes that Made Them Famous is a collection of his favorite restaurants and their most famous recipes from the American South. A sequel Off the Eaten Path: Second Helpings: Tasty eats and delicious stories from the South's less-traveled trails followed in 2013, In 2014 he published Bourbon & Bacon: The Ultimate Guide to the South's Favorite Food Groups, featuring recipes using bourbon, bacon, or a combination of the two. The book includes a history of bourbon and tasting notes for 75 of his favorite whiskies. In 2015, he published Off the Eaten Path: On the Road Again: More Unforgettable Foods and Characters from the South's Back Roads and Byways, a third entry in his "Off the Eaten Path" series.