Aliza Green

author portrait by Steve Legato www.stevelegato.com

Aliza Green, the Philadelphia-based cookbook author, journalist and pioneering chef, is the author of ten highly successful cookbooks including Starting with Ingredients: Baking Recipes, released in fall 2008.  Her newest book, The Fishmonger’s Apprentice, will be published in early 2011 by Quarry Books. Green has appeared twice on NBC’s Today Show to promote her books. She has been interviewed in her own kitchen for Philly Food, a special production of WHYY Public Television in Philadelphia and writes for the Philadelphia Inquirer, Cooking Light Magazine and Clean Eating.

Her Field Guide to Meat: How to Identify, Select, and Prepare Virtually Every Meat, Poultry, and Game Cut (Quirk Books 2005) earned top praises from Food & Wine and Real Simple. Her Field Guide to Produce: How to Identify, Select, and Prepare Virtually Every Fruit and Vegetable at the Market (Quirk Books 2004), was highly regarded by the New York Times, Newsday, Men’s Health, Shape and the Houston Chronicle. With the growing success of the series, her Field Guide to Herbs & Spices (Quirk Books 2006) and Field Guide to Seafood (Quirk Books 2007) are the latest entries in this popular series, a must on the shelves of food writers and editors.

Her masterly Starting with Ingredients: Quintessential Recipes for the Way We Really Cook was published to outstanding reviews in the fall of 2006. With over 550 recipes and detailed, practical, information about the background, culture, history, and uses of 100 important ingredients, this book has been flying off the shelves in the United Stated and Canada. Field Guide to Produce and Field Guide to Herbs & Spices are musts on the shelves of food writers and chefs. (Field Guide to Herbs & Spices has been translated into French and Spanish.)

The scuttlebutt surrounding Green’s Field Guides is certainly fitting; her previous work certainly warrants it. ¡Ceviche!: Seafood, Salads, and Cocktails With a Latino Twist (Running Press 2001), a book she co-authored with chef Guillermo Pernot, received a James Beard Award for “Best Single Subject Cookbook” in 2001. Prior to it, she wrote The Bean Bible: A Legumaniac’s Guide to Lentils, Peas, and Every Edible Bean on the Planet! (Running Press 2000), which Booklist declared was a “comprehensive guide to the world of beans and bean cookery belongs in every cookbook collection.” When Running Press re-released it as as Beans: More than 200 Delicious, Wholesome Recipes from Around the World in Fall 2004 with new photographs and recipes, the book appeared in a New York Times feature on top cookbooks of the year.

For the highly successful book Georges Perrier, Le Bec-Fin Recipes (Running Press 1997), a collection of recipes from Philadelphia’s landmark restaurant that Green co-wrote with highly regarded French chef, USA Today proclaimed: “Le Bec-Fin has long been known for fabulous food. Finally, after 27 years in operation, chef-owner Perrier has assembled his recipes in this attractive, photo-filled book.”

Before her career as a cookbook author, Green wrote popular weekly food columns for both the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News. Her writing has also appeared in Fine Cooking, Prevention, IACP Food Forum, Philadelphia Magazine, and The National Culinary Review. Green has conducted numerous cooking classes, had many television appearances and radio interviews, and is a highly reputed television and print food stylist.

As one of the pioneer chefs who helped make the city of Philadelphia a dining destination, Green began her career in the mid-1970′s as Executive Chef at the renowned Ristorante DiLullo, where her culinary achievements landed the restaurant a prestigious four-star rating. In 1988, The Philadelphia Inquirer inducted Chef Green into its Culinary Hall of Fame, citing her as one of the ten most influential people in the city’s food industry for her uncompromising efforts at Ristorante DiLullo, Apropos, an influential Mediterranean bistro, and the White Dog Café, where she developed the ever-popular restaurant’s deliciously regional menu by working with local farmers.

Green cites her childhood, which she spent traveling and living abroad, as the inspiration for her culinary pursuits. She has been reading about, writing about and preparing and perfecting food for most of her life. In 1975 she opened a catering business, which served as her professional start. She worked as a chef for fifteen years then began writing for periodicals, newspapers and books, television food stylist, and culinary consultant to restaurants, hotels, caterers and food companies. Her dream is to continue cooking, traveling, and learning while sharing her knowledge and enthusiasm with others through conducting special programs, writing cookbooks and leading culinary tours in the Mediterranean region.