Dojny, Brooke

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Dojny, Brooke

PERSONAL:

Married.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Westport, CT.

CAREER:

Writer, journalist, food writer, food consultant, entrepreneur, and chef. Martha Stewart, Inc., chef and catering director. Owner and operator of a catering business. Served as spokesperson for Oscar Mayer Products, 1995-96. Worked as a recipe tester, food stylist, food photographic assistant, and kitchen appliance tester.

MEMBER:

International Association of Cooking Professionals, Connecticut Women's Culinary Alliance (founding member).

AWARDS, HONORS:

Winner, Newman's Own Recipe Contest, food professional category, 1996; James Beard Award.

WRITINGS:

The Best of New Orleans: A Cookbook, food photography by Steven Mark Needham, Collins Publishers San Francisco (San Francisco, CA), 1994.

(With Mary Goodbody) The Best of Chocolate: A Cookbook, food photography by Ellen Silverman, Collins Publishers San Francisco (San Francisco, CA), 1994.

Full of Beans, HarperPerennial (New York, NY), 1996.

The New England Cookbook: 350 Recipes from Town and Country, Land and Sea, Hearth and Home, illustrations by John MacDonald, Harvard Common Press (Boston, MA), 1999.

The New England Clam Shack Cookbook: Favorite Recipes from Clam Shacks, Lobster Pounds, and Chowder Houses, foreword by Susan Herrmann Loomis, Storey Publishing (North Adams, MA), 2003.

Dishing Up Maine: 165 Recipes That Capture Authentic Down East Flavors, photographs by Scott Dorrance, Storey Publishing (North Adams, MA), 2006.

WITH MELANIE BARNARD

Sunday Suppers: Informal American Home Cooking, Prentice Hall (New York, NY), 1988.

Parties: Menus for Easy Good Times, photographs by Randy O'Rourke, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1992.

The Five in Ten Chicken Breast Cookbook: Five Ingredients in Ten Minutes or Less, Hearst Books (New York, NY), 1993.

Cheap Eats: Simple, Sumptuous Meals for Four You Can Make for under $10, Harper Perennial (New York, NY), 1993.

(With Mindy Herman and C. Wayne Callaway) American Medical Association Family Health Cookbook: Good Food That's Good for You, illustrations by Patience Brewster, Pocket Books (New York, NY), 1997.

The Best Pasta Machine Cookbook Ever, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1997.

A Flash in the Pan: Fast, Fabulous Recipes in a Single Skillet, photographs by Maren Caruso, Chronicle Books (San Francisco, CA), 2003.

Author of syndicated newspaper column, "The After Work Gourmet," 1987-92; columnist for Bon Appetit.

SIDELIGHTS:

Brooke Dojny is a food journalist, food consultant, columnist, and author of more than a dozen cookbooks covering a wide range of culinary styles and regional cuisine. Her cookbooks have featured heart-healthy recipes, New Orleans fare, bean dishes, and pasta. Dojny pays particular attention to the seafood and regional dishes of her native New England, and two of her books have focused on this area.

In The New England Cookbook: 350 Recipes from Town and Country, Land and Sea, Hearth and Home, Dojny collects and presents recipes for both local traditional foods as well as ethnic dishes common among the many immigrant groups that populate New England. Clam fritters, chowders, and Boston baked beans share page space with oregano-scented Greek lamb shanks, Portuguese tuna escabeche, and Italian-style garlicky mussels. Dojny also provides additional text material and sidebars that "explore culinary traditions and history and provide a good dose of nostalgia," noted reviewer Judith C. Sutton in Library Journal.

Dishing Up Maine: 165 Recipes That Capture Authentic Down East Flavors concentrates on a variety of different foods common to kitchens and tables throughout Maine. Dojny offers recipes for dishes that represent the most common and most authentic flavors and ingredients found in Maine and New England cooking. She covers a full range of edibles from soups to sandwiches to entrees to desserts. Classic down east haddock chowder, clam shack fried clam rolls, "nude" raw oysters and sauces, and blueberry-peach torta are a few of the featured recipes. In addition to detailed instructions on food preparation, the author also provides additional information, such as where to find farmers' markets, gourmet food shops, and notable restaurants throughout the state of Maine. Dojny displays "an expansive knowledge of twenty-first-century (mostly coastal) culinary Maine," observed a Publishers Weekly reviewer. An Internet Bookwatch reviewer called the book "a welcome addition to any kitchen cookbook collection."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Internet Bookwatch, August, 2006, review of Dishing Up Maine: 165 Recipes That Capture Authentic Down East Flavors.

Library Journal, October 15, 1999, Judith C. Sutton, review of The New England Cookbook: 350 Recipes from Town and Country, Land and Sea, Hearth and Home, p. 98.

Publishers Weekly, March 13, 2006, review of Dishing Up Maine, p. 58.