Joanne Weir

Author, Writer, Teacher
and Professional Chef

Early Years

Joanne Weir is a San Francisco based, award-winning cookbook author, food writer, cooking teacher, and chef whose diverse professional experience includes six years of cooking at Alice Water's Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, as well as an apprenticeship with Madeleine Kamman at L'Auberge Madeleine in France and New Hampshire, where she received her Master Chef Diploma.

Joanne's enthusiasm for cooking comes from a long line of chefs. She is a fourth generation professional, beginning with her great-grandmother who operated a restaurant in Boston at the turn of the century. Her mother, also a professional chef and caterer, worked with cookbook author Charlotte Turgeon for ten years.

Current Projects

In a new, 26-part series "Weir Cooking in the Wine Country", which will begin airing on Public Television in April, viewers will watch Joanne unearth the hidden bounty of the agricultural and wine-producing regions of Northern California. Filmed in the heart of the beautiful Napa Valley, Joanne utilizes her superb teaching ability and hands-on approach to home cooking to enlighten viewers about food and wine pairings, to demonstrate wood-fired brick oven bread making techniques and olive oil pressing, selecting and using fresh herbs, and many more seasonal themes. (Melissa's supplied many of the ingredients used by Joanne throughout the series and is listed as a source in the companion Time-Life book.)

Recognition

Joanne has an extensive culinary background with regards to the history, theory and technique of regional foods of the United States, particularly California, and also of Mediterranean cuisine. Her book From Tapas to Meze was a 1995 James Beard Book Awards Nominee and was named "one of the 10 best cookbooks in the past decade" by The New York Times. Julia Child also designated From Tapas to Meze one of her 12 favorites of the 1000 cookbooks published in 1994. Joanne also authored the four-part series titled Seasonal Celebrations, released in 1997 by Williams-Sonoma, and Pasta Soups and Salads in the Williams-Sonoma Pasta Collection Series. Other books authored by Joanne Weir include the award-winning France: A Culinary Journey, and American Food - A Celebration which she co-authored. In addition, she is a regular contributor to Bon Appetit and Fine Cooking magazines, as well as the San Francisco Chronicle.

Touring and teaching extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, and Asia, Joanne Weir is a consummate food professional, whose passion for teaching was rewarded with the prestigious Julia Child/IACP "Cooking Teacher Award of Excellence" in 1996. We hope you'll tune in to "Weir Cooking in the Wine Country" to learn from this very sought-after teacher - check your local PBS station for dates and times.