About the Chef

Chef Cooper, a graduate of The Culinary Institute of America, was one of the first fifty women to be certified as an Executive Chef by the educational arm of the American Culinary Federation.
 
Anns career has taken her from positions with Holland America Cruises to Radisson Hotels to the Telluride Bluegrass Festival and Telluride Ski Resort where she catered parties of up to 20,000. She has been featured in Gourmet, Food Arts, Chef, Restaurants & Institutions, Nations Restaurant News, National Culinary Review, The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, The Boston Globe, Womans Day and has made Guest Chef appearances throughout the country. Ann works as an industry services consultant for the Culinary Institute of America, as Corporate Chef for Pinnacle Hospitality, and as a consultant for several restaurants and hotels in New England. Chef Cooper is on the Executive Committee of the Women Chefs and Restaurateurs, the Board of Overseers of CC2000, past President of The American Culinary Federation of Central Vermont and a member of The Alumni Committee of the Culinary Institute of America. She has been a presenter at both the National Restaurant Association and Fancy Food shows in New York City and Chicago. Cooper maintains an online presence as well, with services and websites such as Chefnet, Indian Harvest, Foodnet, DigitalChef and The Womens Culinary Resource Site. 

Since the early 80s, Ann has served as Executive Chef at the prestigious Telluride Film Festival in Telluride, Colorado and her staff includes winners of the Chef Ann Cooper Academy Scholars Award established in 1995 by the IUP Academy of Culinary Arts in Pennsylvania. In 1998, operating out of the kitchen facilities headquartered in tents, she catered events where the total meals served topped 20,000 during the five-day festival. 

Ann has compiled an impressive record of achievement during her career and her numerous awards include both Gold and Silver medals won at national ACF conventions. In 1995, she was Vermont ACF Chef of the Year as well as being a national ACF of the Year nominee. Ann is currently working on her next book, The Sustainable Kitchen, to be published by Routledge and to be released in May 2000. 

About the Author

To order A Woman's Place is in the Kitchen online just click here!

A Woman's Place is in the Kitchen is a historical and contemporary research collection that provides a comprehensive vision of women and their roles in the professional culinary arena. In a domestic setting on an international level, women have been the primary food providers to the world. Yet, until recently, women have been all but excluded from the upper echelons of professional kitchens.

In her book, Chef Ann Cooper discusses both traditional and current vantage points of women involved in the food service industry. Some of the historical issues discussed include: the influences of sociological change emanating from the transfer of power from matriarchal to patriarchal emphasis and the effects of the implementation of the brigade system which was developed from all-male military institutions.

A database of 6500 women and the compilation of 500 surveys provide statistics for the contemporary discussion. Women culinary professionals of today express passion for food while haveing to balance choices between professional and family obligations; what are the ramifications of these choices and how do they effect the culinary industry and the decisions made by colleagues, mentors and staff?

This is the first book that has been written exclusively about women chefs and restaurateurs; A Woman's Place is in the Kitchen provides an informative, insightful and objective protrait of the role of women working in the multi-faceted culinary field.

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New England Fall
Menu - October