 |
 |
|
 |
|
| Grilling Secrets Full Bio | |
|||
 Jerry Anne Di Vecchio, San Francisco based food and wine authority, consults and writes about subjects she knows expertly.
As of March 2001, Di Vecchio retired as Food and Wine Editor for Sunset Magazine to become the publication's Contributing Editor and write a monthly column, Adventures in Food, and other features focusing on her passion and knowledge about food and wine. In 1981, she assumed the food editor role and also became director of food, wine, and entertaining editorial for Sunset Publishing Corporation. Prior to this she served as Sunset's Southwest Editor for five years, heading the Southern California editorial staff. Di Vecchio joined Sunset in 1959, and has also served as Home Entertainment Editor and Associate Editor of the general staff and the food department. Di Vecchio published extensively for Sunset and is currently authoring her own works. She revised and updated Sunset's original Easy Basics Cookbook to which she contributed (1982, over 850,000 copies sold) and the best selling results were released in April 1997 as Sunset's New Easy Basics Cookbook. She has also written and edited dozens of popular Sunset cook books, including The Best of Sunset, an anthology of life-style and foods that form the base of Western Cuisine (1987), followed by 15 volumes of Sunset Recipe Annuals from 1988 through 2002. Other books written or edited by Di Vecchio include Sunset French Cook Book; French Cooking Country-style; Italian Cook Book; Mexican Cook Book (more than 2 million copies sold); Scandinavian Cook Book; Low-fat Cook Book; and many other books with topics such as barbecuing, breads, salads, soups and stews, desserts, and entertaining. She also co-authored the Weber & Sunset Great American Grilling Cookbook, with Betty Hughes, first printing 1996 Di Vecchio is also currently writing for other publications including Safeway Select Magazine, EatingWell Magazine, and Gourmet Magazine. She has organized and taught classes in food and wine for Draeger's Markets, the University of California Extension Service in San Francisco, the original Ma Maison's Ma Cuisine Cooking School (a director), Lawry's California Center-both in Los Angeles; the Wine Festival in Monterey; Tante Marie Cooking School in San Francisco; and for community college and adult education programs in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles. In conjunction with the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, she designed and ran a 41-night cafe to serve attendees to the Los Angeles Olympics Festival of Dance in Pasadena. Di Vecchio has judged wines for many events, including the Dallas Morning News Competition. She has also appeared frequently on radio and television. Foods and wine, particularly those of the Pacific Rim, food and wine trends, and food and wine marketing, are areas of expertise on which Di Vecchio often focuses in professional presentations and assignments. Di Vecchio serves on the board of Froth au Lait, manufacturer's of small electric cooking appliances; consults with advertising and public relations firms, and food manufacturers including Nancy's Specialty Foods and Aquacuisine, Inc.; and has consulted on publications for the Huntington Library and others. Also she has supervised menu planning for restaurants, cruise ships, and children's camps. A magna cum laude graduate of San Jose State College in home economics and journalism, Di Vecchio has traveled the Americas, Australia, Asia, Europe, India, the Mid-East, New Zealand, South America, South East Asia, and the South Pacific extensively to study food and wine, food preparation, food supplies, and local cooking techniques. Di Vecchio is founding president of the San Francisco Chapter of Les Dames d'Escoffier. She has served for: the American Institute of Wine and Food (Northern California chapter chair, national director); the International Association of Culinary Professionals (cookbook awards chair and committee); the San Francisco Professional Food Society (executive officer); the former Home Economics in Business section (executive officer) of the American Home Economics Society; the former Dance Gallery and Bella Lewitzky Dance Foundation (trustee), Los Angeles; the San Mateo County Chapter of the March of Dimes (trustee); the San Francisco Chapter of the March of Dimes (board member at large); the ARC (advisory board), San Francisco; Skyline College, San Mateo, and California State University at Long Beach (advisor, home economics curriculum) ; San Francisco Ferry Plaza Public Market and SAGE (advisory boards). Di Vecchio's other professional associations have included Vintner's Club, Society of Professional Journalists, Newspaper Food Writers Association, West coast culinary societies; and diet programs at the Northern California Cancer Center. In 1989 she received the first prestigious WAFIE award, presented by the Northern California Chapter of the American Institute of Wine and Food, for outstanding contributions to food and wine journalism. In 2000, she was invited, as a breast cancer survivor, to be one of 16 culinary professionals to contribute to A Passion for Good Food, a cookbook supporting the Susan G. Koman breast cancer foundation. In 2001, Di Vecchio was named Grande Dame by Les Dames d' Escoffier International for extraordinary and unusual contributions to the fields of food, wine, other fine beverages, nutrition, the arts of the table or other fields related to these disciplines. Past Grande Dames include MFK Fisher, Marion Cunningham, and Anne Willan. |
|
|||
|
