Updated 27 June 2008

Hello! I'm the author of The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry.

Summer in Seattle

Mike and I are back in Seattle from Paris. Take a look at the blog for the full details (including photos of Meryl Streep as Julia Child...) We miss the baguettes and cheese, but hey, there's no place more beautiful than Seattle on a warm summer's day.

Food writing class
There are a few spaces left in the two-day Introduction to Food Writing class that I'll be leading at the Richard Hugo House the 19-20th July. It was a great time last year. Take a look at the full itinerary. (This will launch a pdf file in another browser.)

The latest

I was asked to give the commencement speech for the graduating class of Le Cordon Bleu on Friday, 6 June. Wow! The pressure was on. With the exception of my still poor French, it went well. I chatted with my favorite chefs from the book and met many of the students in this class. See my blog for more details. Below is a picture of me with "Chef Savard" after the event.

By all accounts the first AAA tour was fantastic fun for all. We have many new friends and tour leaders Marie and Isabelle were brilliant. Such good stories to tell too. Cooking at Le Cordon Bleu, a market tour led by one of my favorite chefs – head of Superior Cusine at LCB -  Diedier Chantefort, a walking tour of the Norman town of Rouen, the wild spectacle of Moulin Rouge, wine tasting and a subterranean dinner in the "Cave of Kings" in the Marais... oo la la! Read about our adventures and see the pictures on my blog.

Just last week in London I appeared on UKTV's Market Kitchen with hosts Tom Parker Bowles and Matthew Fort. They were wonderful and we all enjoyed a little sip of Calvados (Apple Brandy from Normandie) on the set during and after the taping. For UK fans, the show should be airing this week on UKTV.

The UK version of the book has launched! Yet meanwhile, I'm at work on the next book. I’m not allowed to talk about it much yet except to say that it's a sort of a sequel to The Sharper Your Knife.

If you’re in Seattle this summer, I'll be heading a food writing weekend. Why not join me? The sign up starts up on the 20th May. You can find more details here.

For Book Clubs

Take a look at the new recipe guide for book clubs. And if you're in a club, let me know what you think, or pass along suggestions, questions or whatever.

What I'm doing now

You can read more about my exploits on my blog. I'm in Europe and I'm recovering from the AAA tour designed around my book. It was non-stop for seven days and I had a blast. Recovering from is is a like like the initial book tour, a seven-week marathon with 28 stops in 16 cities. My biggest highlight of that tour was meeting my radio crush Neal Conan in the NPR Washington studios on Talk of the Nation. You can listen to the interview, read an excerpt and even check out a couple of recipes on the NPR site.

Get instant gratification
Download the audiobook here from Audible.com. Audible.com offers a sample and a download of the CD of receipes free! Or order your copy now from these online retailers. Oh, and you can take a look at the excerpt from AAA Going Places and the prologue excerpted here on the site.

A smattering of media tidbits related to my book. You can read selected reviews here on the site.

• Selected as the first book in 2008 for Beard on Books at the James Beard House in New York.
• Saras Moulton included in her Top 10 Cookbooks of the Year on Good Morning America (12/20)
• Selected as one of the Top 20 food books of 2007 by Leite's Culinaria.
• Smithsonian magazine ran an excerpt in the January 2008 issue.
• Elle magazine picked it as the #1 Reader's Choice in its December.
• I had a lovely chat with WNYC-AM/FM's Leonard Lopate in New York.
• I've done a bunch of local TV. Here's my favorite interview so far. (I don't have a link to the first TV appearance I did, unfortunate since I cut myself demonstrating how to dice an onion...)
• Jeff Houck of the Tampa Tribune wrote a huge spread and interviewed me for a podcast - while I was in my bathtub.
• The Seattle Times wrote this in the Oct 3, 2007 Food & Wine section
• The Fall Reading Guide in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer featured this lovely review.
• The book has earned the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval, picked for October as a book "To Spark Your Dream."
• The crew at Page Six over at the New York Post, wrote it was all about the "culinary hell" of the kitchen at Le Cordon Bleu.
• Last, but not least, Women & Wine and Sofitel Hotels sponsored parties in six cities for about 500 women, each of whom received a copy of my book from the hotel.

The publicists at Viking are doing such a good job that I'm getting a lot of requests from the media for interviews, plus things like photos, a bio, recipes from the book, etc., so I've collected all this stuff in the Press Room.  

About me
I'm a journalist and food writer based in Seattle. Learn a little bit more about me here. My memoir, "The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry," from Viking/Penguin is the first book to look inside the famed culinary school Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. You can read an excerpt from the book, and also take a look at a few sample of clips and writing. Also, take a look at the reviews it has been getting.

Book Clubs
I've been doing conference calls with book clubs, and I'll be glad to call in for yours if my schedule in any way permits. Just send me an email.

Join the mailing list
Every other month, you'll get a new recipe, plus updates on lessons, readings and other public appearances and occasionally the opportunity to win prizes. Join my mailing list now.

Bookseller news
BookSense featured my book as a "notable title" in October 2007. BookSense is the collective voice of independent booksellers in the country. Also, Borders  chose my book for its Original Voices program, its in-store national showcase of up-and-coming authors.