Joanne Weir

Joanne Weir is a television personality, James Beard Award-winning cookbook author and judge, international cooking teacher and chef.

Joanne Weir is a television personality, James Beard Award-winning cookbook author and judge, international cooking teacher and chef. In her very successful public television series, “Joanne Weir’s Cooking Class” and her new series “Joanne Weir’s Cooking Confidence”, Joanne’s love of teaching cooking and working side-by-side with someone takes center stage.

Presently, Joanne is writing her next book “Joanne Weir’s Cooking Confidence” to be released Fall 2012 by Taunton Press. Weir is producing her own wines called Joanne Weir Wines where she works with artisanal wine makers from California and around the world. She has also been named Consulting Editor-at-Large of Fine Cooking Magazine and is slated to open Copita, a seasonal, sustainable local Mexican restaurant and tequileria in Sausalito, California partnering with restaurateur extraordinaire, Larry Mindel May 2012.

Awarded the very first IACP Julia Child Cooking Teacher Award of Excellence, Joanne shares a lifetime of experience that flavors everything she touches. Her first book, From Tapas to Meze (Crown, 1994,) was nominated for a James Beard Award and selected by Julia Child as one of her 12 personal favorites out of 1000 cookbooks published that year. A completely revised version of From Tapas to Meze (Ten Speed Press, 2004) was re-released with spectacular food photographs and won the 2004 Gourmand World Cookbook Award for Best Mediterranean Cookbook.

From there she went on to publish many books including James Beard nominated You Say Tomato (Broadway Books 1998). Her talents were finally brought to life in the PBS series “Weir Cooking in the Wine Country”, shot on location in the Napa Valley. The companion book, Weir’s More Cooking in the Wine Country (Simon & Schuster, 2001) went on to garner a James Beard Award nomination and an IACP Cookbook Award nomination. Joanne’s adopted hometown, San Francisco, is the culinary setting for “Weir Cooking in the City”, her 26-part PBS series and companion book (Simon & Schuster, 2004) for which she received a James Beard Award for Best Cookbook in the General Category in 2005. Joanne’s latest cookbooks include, “Wine Country Cooking” (Ten Speed Press, 2008) and “Tequila: A Guide to Types, Flights, Cocktails and Bites” (Ten Speed Press, 2009).

Joanne has been featured on numerous television shows including The Today Show, Good Morning America and Fox to name a few. She also writes for many national magazines including, Cooking Light, Bon Appétit, Fine Cooking, Better Homes and Gardens, Food & Wine, AARP The Magazine and Sunset Magazine.

Joanne’s passion for home cooking was stoked by a legacy of life in the kitchen. A fourth generation professional chef, Joanne’s great-grandmother operated a restaurant in Boston at the turn of the century called Pilgrim’s Pantry. That enthusiasm for food was passed down to her grandfather and mother, a professional chef and caterer, who worked for years with the legendary cookbook author, Charlotte Turgeon. Joanne continues that same tradition, though it wasn’t until after getting a degree in Art Education from the University and Massachusetts and teaching Fine Arts in Boston that she found her way back to the table.

Joanne spent five years cooking with Alice Waters at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California and studied with Madeleine Kamman in France and was awarded a Master Chef Diploma with honors. Her ultimate calling has been in her teaching which has taken her throughout the United States, as well as all over the world,-- Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Great Britain, South America and Canada. She spends several months of the year touring the globe sharing her extensive background with regard to nutrition, food theory and technique, in particular Mediterranean cuisine and the regional foods of the U.S. All these elements come alive in her thoughtful classes as well as her delightful words and television series.