Joanne Weir was awarded the inaugural IACP Cooking Teacher Award of Excellence in 1997. She is the author of award-winning You Say Tomato, Broadway Books 1998 and From Tapas to Meze, Crown, 1994, both of which were nominated for James Beard Cookbook Awards. From Tapas to Meze was also selected by Julia Child as one of her twelve personal favorites out of 1000 cookbooks published in 1994. Joanne authored the four-part series titled Seasonal Celebrations, released in 1997 by Williams-Sonoma. Joanne also is a regular contributor to national magazines and newspapers.
Joanne's professional experience includes five years of cooking at Chez Panisse Restaurant in Berkeley, California. Her professional training includes a year of full-time study and apprenticeship with Madeleine Kamman in New England and France after which she was awarded a Master Chef Diploma. Joanne tours and teaches extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, and France, spending 7 to 8 months per year teaching all over the world. She is a member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, Women Chefs and Restaurateurs, the James Beard Foundation and the San Francisco Professional Food Society.
Joanne's association with food and enthusiasm for cooking comes from a long of chefs. Her great-grandmother operated Pilgrim's Pantry, a restaurant in Boston at the turn of the century, and her mother, also a professional chef and caterer, worked with cookbook author Charlotte Turgeon for ten years. Joanne continues in their footsteps. She holds a Fine Arts Degree in Art Education from the University of Massachusetts and taught Fine Arts in Boston for five years before pursuing a career in food.
Joanne has an extensive culinary background with regards to the history, theory and technique of Mediterranean cuisine, as well as the regional foods of the United States, particularly California. These elements are brought to life in her creative, thoughtful, enthusiastic classes, written articles for magazines and periodicals, and television series.
