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Meet the What's Cooking Team

Visit the Staff Picks page on our Amazon Store for books we recommend for adults and children.

Michelle Stern and Jacques Pepin Michelle Stern, Founder and Owner of What's Cooking

Michelle Stern, founder of What's Cooking, was a high school biology and environmental science teacher for 5 years prior to the birth of her daughter. At present, she balances the parenting of her two wonderful children and running this growing business. She trains and manages an excellent team of instructors, develops curriculum for our growing after school program, and teaches a variety of other What's Cooking classes.

Michelle's connections through What's Cooking have lead to a variety of wonderful and unexpected food-related events. She received a grant from Heifer International to participate on an Educator Study Tour to Honduras in the summer of 2007, where she learned about sustainable development and the prevention of hunger. She was invited to help her friends cater the Celebrity Poker Tournament at the 2006 Emmy Awards. She also assisted her colleague, Jennifer Carden, in food styling for a Thanksgiving-themed Satellite Media Tour for Food Network Star, Guy Fieri. Most recently, she met Jacques Pepin and Mollie Katzen, both of whom love that her work brings families together into the kitchen. They have given her permission to use their family friendly recipes in What's Cooking Weekly, Michelle's healthy menu planner for families. Michelle also writes for several popular websites and blogs, such as Bostonmamas, Mommy Track'd and the WellFed Network, on topics related to cooking with children, family mealtimes and healthy menu planning.

Jennifer Carden, Author, Chef and Food Stylist

Jennifer Carden is a chef, food stylist, and mother in the San Francisco Bay area. She has worked with some of the best chefs in the area including Jacques Pepin and Mollie Katzen, and has written and developed recipes for restaurants and major food companies nationwide.

Jennifer's innovative ideas and humorous slant on feeding children have led her to develop books and products that help parents to feed their children healthy, quick, uncomplicated food. She is a recipe contributor to The Healthy Baby Workbook, by Kimberly Rider by Chronicle Books.The Toddler Cafe

Look for her new book, Toddler Cafe (from Chronicle Books), in your local book shop or on Amazon!

Wendy eating corn with her son.

Wendy Dalia, Curriculum Consultant

Wendy Dalia is a marine ecologist by training and is the current Education Director of the Richardson Bay Audubon Society. For the last 4 years, she has primarily been a stay-at-home mom and personal chef to her two children, both of whom have had the added challenge of numerous food allergies and sensitivities.

What's Cooking provides a creative outlet for Wendy to share her love of cooking and informal education with children. She regularly contributes ideas, feedback and recipes to What's Cooking for families who have: Vegetarian/Vegan diets, food allergies, sensitivities, and aversions.

Janet Dresser, Independent Consultant, Seasonal Recipe Expert, Chef and Registered Nurse

Janet Dresser Janet Dresser is the owner of As You Like It catering, and is also an Independent Consultant with What's Cooking in Marin County. As a registered nurse, she is alert to the importance of eating well and eating smart. She believes in eating dishes made from organic products grown, raised and harvested by local purveyors.

Katherine Groppo

Katherine Groppo, Summer Camp Instructor, Curriculum Developer, What's Cooking Weekly Data Entry Master and Elementary School Teacher

Katherine Groppo has five years of experience educating elementary children, and currently teaches a class of fifth graders in Palo Alto. She has had a love of food and cooking since childhood, and some of her earliest memories include sitting on the kitchen counter helping her mother mix chocolate chip cookie dough. She strives to incorporate this passion into classroom learning by creating social studies, literature, and math lessons that involve cooking.

Katherine is a firm believer in the importance of introducing children to highly nutritious, fun to make, and delicious to eat foods. She aims to help kids discover the delights of healthy eating and living.

She currently lives in San Francisco with her husband, new baby girl, and their cat, Molly.

Karen Gilbert

Karen Gilbert, N.E., Natural Chef, Nutrition Educator, and What's Cooking Independent Consultant/instuctor

Karen Gilbert, N.E., is a Certified Natural Chef and Certified Nutrition Educator. In Karen's work as a personal chef and nutrition educator she emphasizes the use of whole, organic, seasonal, and local foods, nutritive herbs and appropriate supplementation to relieve and restore metabolic balance. Karen's focus as a chef is the creation of delectable gourmet meals that also happen to be healthy and nutritious. Karen;s passion is to guide families and individuals to a more healthful diet and is excited to show people how it can make a difference in how they feel, in disease prevention, and in overall general health and vitality.

Karen currently resides in Marin County with her husband Randy, and dog Lucy, while missing terribly her excellent eater/sous chef daughter Nicole, who is away at college.

Colleen O'Donnell, Independent Consultant in the East Bay

Colleen started her career as a therapist working with high risk high school students and as a tutor for individuals with learning differences. After a decision to go to culinary school and follow her passion for everything culinary she now works for Made in Napa Valley, a specialty food manufacturer of natural pantry products. Because of her varied experiences; she appreciates and embraces the experiential side of cooking and creating as well as the importance of healthy eating. Cooking is a great way to bring people together and share experiences as well as learn about successes, failures and new discoveries. Educating people about the importance of healthy eating and how to prepare a wide variety of foods is a great way to enhance their lives and create a better understanding of our connectedness to the earth, seasons and the future of food production.

She is very excited to bring together her experiences and passions as an Independent Contractor with What's Cooking and share the excitement and experience of cooking with others.

Maya Paul, Independent Consultant in San Francisco and Holistic Health Counselor

Maya W. Paul has always loved food and has enjoyed cooking since she was a young girl. After a number of years working for various non-profits in the administrative side of things, she is finally following her true passions: health, food, nutrition and cooking.

Maya loves to help others improve their cooking skills, share recipes, shop for local organic foods, continue to learn about nutrition, and especially work with individuals to help them reach their health goals!

Maya received her Holistic Health Counseling training at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN), in New York City. This program integrated many of the different dietary theories?combining the knowledge of traditional philosophies with modern concepts such as the USDA food pyramid, the glycemic index, the Zone and raw foods. Maya's certification is pending and will be completed in June 2008.

Coming Soon!

We will be having a new teacher join us soon in Davis, CA.

We would love to add teachers to our team in the South Bay and in Southern California.
Know anyone who is an excellent teacher and loves to cook? Have them contact us!

We LOVE our Interns!

Let us know if you would like to work on a fun, growing and highly publicized recipe project with What's Cooking!