Alice Medrich

Author, pastry chef, and teacher, Alice Medrich is one of the country's foremost experts on chocolate and chocolate desserts. She is the only three-time Cookbook of the Year Award winner. Her fifth book, Bittersweet: Recipes and Tales from A Life in Chocolate (Artisan, 2003) was named IACP Cookbook of the Year in 2004, and she won the James Beard Cookbook of the Year award for both Chocolate and The Art of Low-Fat Desserts (1994) and for Cocolat: Extraordinary Chocolate Desserts (1990), which also won the Julia Child Award for the Best First Cookbook.

She opened her renowned dessert company, Cocolat in Berkeley, California in 1976 to national accolades. Gourmet Magazine said, "Cocolat is to chocolate what Tiffany's is to diamonds". Medrich sold Cocolat in 1990, but continues to influence chefs, chocolate makers, and home cooks, by writing, teaching and consulting. She appeared in the Television Food Network "Chef de Jour" and "Baker's Dozen" series and with Julia Child in the PBS series, "Baking with Julia". Alice's newest book, a James Beard Award nominee, is Pure Dessert: True Flavors, Inspiring Ingredients, and Simple Recipes (Artisan 2007).