Mitchell, Paulette

views updated

Mitchell, Paulette

PERSONAL: Female. Education: University of Iowa, graduated, 1971; attended La Varenne Cooking School (Paris, France).

ADDRESSES: Home—Minneapolis, MN. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Rodale, 33 E. Minor St., Emmaus, PA 18098. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Educator and writer. Taught at cooking schools, including Kitchen Window Cooking School and Byerly's School of Culinary Arts. Restaurant consultant and lecturer.

WRITINGS:

The New American Vegetarian Menu Cookbook: From Everyday Dining to Elegant Entertaining, Rodale (Emmaus, PA), 1984.

The Fifteen-Minute Vegetarian Gourmet, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1987, published as The Fifteen-Minute Gourmet: Vegetarian, IDG Books (Foster City, CA), 1999.

The Fifteen-Minute Single Gourmet, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1994.

The Complete Book of Dressings, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1995.

The Fifteen-Minute Chicken Gourmet, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1997, published as The Fifteen-Minute Gourmet: Chicken, IDG Books (Foster City, CA), 1999.

The Complete Soy Cookbook, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1998.

Noodles, IDG Books (Foster City, CA), 1999.

Vegetarian Sandwiches: Fresh Fillings for Slices, Pockets, Wraps, and Rolls, Chronicle Books (San Francisco, CA), 2000.

Vegetarian Appetizers: Simply Delicious Recipes for Easy Entertaining, Chronicle Books (San Francisco, CA), 2001.

A Beautiful Bowl of Soup: The Best Vegetarian Recipes, Chronicle Books (San Francisco, CA), 2004.

The Spirited Vegetarian: Over 100 Recipes Made Lively with Wine and Spirits, Rodale (Emmaus, PA), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: Paulette Mitchell has worked in the culinary field for a number of years, as a lecturer, consultant, and cooking instructor. She is also a celebrated food writer, specializing in creating recipes that are quick to prepare; she has written extensively about vegetarian cooking as well. Mitchell is a popular instructor, having taught many different cooking classes at the Kitchen Window Cooking School and Byerly's School of Culinary Arts. Mitchell is the author of more than ten cookbooks, including 1984's The New American Vegetarian Menu Cookbook: From Everyday Dining to Elegant Entertaining, 1987's The Fifteen-Minute Vegetarian Gourmet, and 2000's Vegetarian Sandwiches: Fresh Fillings for Slices, Pockets, Wraps, and Rolls.

In 2004 Mitchell wrote and published A Beautiful Bowl of Soup: The Best Vegetarian Recipes. In it the author highlights a variety of vegetarian soup recipes, including classics such as black bean soup and minestrone soup, along with more unique varieties like chestnut soup and wild rice-cranberry soup. Accompanying each recipe is a host of colorful photographs, simple instructions, and practical tips for cooking and managing a home kitchen. Mitchell also includes nineteen vegan soup recipes.

Readers and reviewers responded positively to A Beautiful Bowl of Soup overall. Her "helpful hints on how-tos and ingredients add to the overall excellence," wrote Sybil Pratt in a review for BookPage. "This book makes a convincing argument for soup as the star course of any meal," observed a Publishers Weekly contributor.

The following year, Mitchell published The Spirited Vegetarian: Over 100 Recipes Made Lively with Wine and Spirits. Here the author has showcased vegetarian recipes that include various spirits: wine, beer, and liquors. Dishes include Yukon gold potato-leek soup, red wine ratatouille, and broiled bananas with rum-raisin sauce. All courses, from appetizers to desserts, are featured. Mitchell also includes a chart that outlines various wine types and their characteristics. Again, reviewers praised Mitchell's work in The Spirited Vegetarian. The book "fills one of the last untapped niches in the ever-burgeoning vegetarian cookbook market," wrote a Publishers Weekly contributor. This work "is a testament to the fact that a vegetarian lifestyle can be gourmet and fun," observed a reviewer for Wisconsin Bookwatch.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

AFAA's American Fitness, April, 1988, review of The Fifteen-Minute Vegetarian Gourmet, p. 48.

E, July-August, 2005, Stephanie White, review of Vegetarian Appetizers: Simply Delicious Recipes for Easy Entertaining, p. 61.

MPLS-St. Paul Magazine, January, 1995, Sylvia Paine, "The Great Minnesota Food Guide," p. 26; August, 1995, Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, "Fast Food," p. 39.

Publishers Weekly, June 5, 2000, review of Vegetarian Sandwiches: Fresh Fillings for Slices, Pockets, Wraps, and Rolls, p. 89; December 1, 2003, review of A Beautiful Bowl of Soup: The Best Vegetarian Recipes, p. 53; January 17, 2005, review of The Spirited Vegetarian: Over 100 Recipes Made Lively with Wine and Spirits, p. 48.

Whole Earth, summer, 1999, Daphne Derven, review of The Complete Soy Cookbook, p. 102.

Wisconsin Bookwatch, April, 2005, review of The Spirited Vegetarian.