B I O G R A P H Y

Steven Raichlen is a multi award-winning cookbook author, cooking teacher, and syndicated food columnist. In July 1998, the New York power publisher, Workman, published The Barbecue Bible, Raichlen's encyclopedic study of grilling and barbecuing around the world. Four years in the making, The Barbecue Bible features more than 500 recipes, plus a crash course on grilling, barbecuing, smoking, and other live fire cooking techniques. The research took Raichlen on a 150,000 mile journey to 25 countries on five continents. A winner of an IACP/Julia Child Award and main selection of the Book of the Month Club, the 600-page book is now in its seventh printing.

Raichlen also wrote the lavishly illustrated Caribbean Pantry Cookbook (Artisan, 1995) and the perennially popular Miami Spice (Workman Publishing, now in its sixth printing), which celebrates the vibrant cuisine of his home state, Florida. The book won the 1994 IACP/Julia Child Award for Best Regional American Cookbook. In October 1998, Rodale Books published Healthy Latin Cooking in both English and Spanish. Raichlen is also the author of the award-winning High-Flavor, Low-Fat Cookbook series, published by Viking. High-Flavor, Low-Fat Vegetarian Cooking won the 1996 James Beard Award for Best Vegetarian Cookbook and a Critics Choice Award. The first book in the series, High-Flavor, Low-Fat Cooking, won the 1993 James Beard Award for Best Light and Healthy Cookbook. Other books in the series include High-Flavor, Low-Fat Chicken, Pasta, Appetizers, Desserts, and High-Flavor, Low-Fat Italian Cooking (a James Beard Award nominee). High-Flavor, Low-Fat Mexican Cooking, published in 1999, has been nominated for a James Beard award and High-Flavor, Low-Fat Jewish Cooking will be published in Fall 2000.

As a columnist with the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, Raichlen is read monthly in over 100 newspapers by 15 million people. His column has won the Association of Food Journalists award for Best Food Column of the Year. Raichlen also edits a healthy cooking magazine for physicians called Santé and is a frequent contributor to National Geographic Traveler magazine, Food & Wine, and Hemispheres. His TV appearances have included Good Morning America, The Today Show, CBS This Morning, The TV Food Network, The Discovery Channel, and CNN. He has also done consulting for the Weber Stephens Grill Company, The Florida Citrus Board, Meridien Hotels, and IRLC in Hong Kong.

An acclaimed lecturer and cooking teacher, Raichlen founded Cooking in Paradise, a Caribbean cooking school on the French island of St. Barthelemy. Specializing in healthy West Indian cooking, the school has been profiled by CNN, Bon Appétit magazine, and Hideaways Report. Bon Appétit magazine hailed Raichlen as "a witty performer and a true virtuoso."

In 1975, Raichlen received a Thomas J. Watson Foundation Fellowship to study medieval cooking in Europe. He trained at the Cordon Bleu and La Varenne cooking schools in Paris and was La Varenne's first program coordinator in North America. Raichlen was born in Japan, raised in Baltimore, Maryland, and educated at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in French literature. He currently lives in Coconut Grove, Florida, with his wife, publicist Barbara Seldin. His hobbies include biking and sailing.