Mollie Katzen

Cookbook Writer, Artist, TV Series

Early Years

Twenty years ago, when Mollie Katzen opened the Moosewood Restaurant in Ithaca, New York, she kept a journal of her recipes. In 1977, this simple documentation of her innovative vegetarian cuisine became the Moosewood Cookbook, which has since sold more than 2 million copies, making it one of the top-ten best-selling cookbooks of all time. The cookbook has influenced generations of vegetarians and meat-eaters alike who aspire to make healthy, colorful, and delicious meals.

Katzen's culinary career began at the age of seven, making coffee for her parents every morning. Given free rein in the kitchen, she began to experiment with food and write down recipes. "All it really takes to become an improviser is a love of food, an awareness of what you love about it, and the curiosity to experiment."

With one of her first loves being art, Katzen enrolled at the School of Art and Architecture of Cornell University as a fine arts major. Until age 18, she had eaten meat almost daily, but unwilling to eat the "mystery meat" in the cafeteria she filled up on vegetables. "After six months of ecstatically piling my plate high with freshly steamed vegetables, I realized I hadn't eaten any meat at all." Holding jobs as a cook in cafes and restaurants all through college, Katzen became increasingly knowledgeable about restaurant management, culinary techniques, and foods. At a macrobiotic restaurant in Ithaca she discovered "the beauty of simple legumes and grains". All these experiences led her, with her brother and his friend, to eventually open the Moosewood Restaurant in 1973.

Current Projects

In 1981 Katzen relocated to Berkeley, California, where she completed The New Enchanted Broccoli Forest, her second book which has so far sold about a million copies. The more than 200 recipes in her third book, Still Life with Menu, appear in a series of 50 full menus all composed around ethnic cuisines. Each meal is introduced by an original, full-color painting by Katzen. Her first 13-part public television series, Mollie Katzen's Cooking Show (presented by KQED San Francisco) followed in 1995.

Visits to her son's preschool class in the late 80's led to Katzen's fourth book, the award-winning children's cookbook Pretend Soup and Other Real Recipes: A Cookbook for Preschoolers & Up (1994). Her sequel to Pretend Soup, Honest Pretzels (Tricycle Press) was published in 1995.
 
Katzen's first major book in nine years, Mollie Katzen's Vegetable Heaven, was published in October 1997. A 26-part series of half-hour shows for PBS was based on the book and Melissa's was proud to contribute an array of specialty vegetables, fruits and ingredients to the production.

Her newest book, Mollie Katzen's Sunlight Cafe (Hyperion 2002) features 400 tasty and tempting breakfast recipes.

Popular with vegetarians and meat eaters alike, Mollie Katzen is widely credited with having put vegetarian cuisine on the map, and onto mainstream dinner tables. She continues to do her artwork in her home studio. Her home kitchen is painted in "tart pastels" as she calls them. She turned a love for drawing and cooking into a vegetarian empire. "To have my work be broadly accessible and well embraced, and to have it contribute in any way to people's health and pleasure, has been the ultimate privilege".

To learn more about Mollie Katzen, her cookbooks, cooking show,art, and gifts...visit www.molliekatzen.com