She won a Pulitzer Prize for public service in 2018 as part of The New York Times coverage of sexual harassment and abuse and is a four-time James Beard award–winner for food writing.

[8][9] In 2014, she joined the Times's new digital cooking initiative and began reporting on national food news and trends.

[7] Severson's most recent book, Cook Fight, was co-authored with Julia Moskin, a New York Times food writer, and was published by Ecco Press, an imprint of HarperCollins, in 2012.

Her memoir, Spoon Fed: How Eight Cooks Saved My Life, was published by Riverhead Press on April 15, 2010.

[17][18][19] She also won the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism for her San Francisco Chronicle work, along with fellow reporter Meredith May, on childhood obesity in 2002.