Michelle McKenzie was the longtime Program Director and Chef at 18 Reasons, a community cooking school in San Francisco. She is the author of Dandelion & Quince: Exploring the Wide World of Unusual Vegetables, Fruits, and Herbs, which was nominated for both a James Beard Award and an IACP Award. Her second cookbook, The Modern Larder, was recently released and introduces home-cooks to a raft of new, flavor-packed pantry staples -- e.g. shiso, 'ndjua, Job's Tears, and dozens of others -- and incorporates them into over 200 wholesome recipes.
Michelle graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a degree in nutrition and a minor in biochemistry, giving her a deep understanding of food properties and their complex implications within the human body. She later graduated from The Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts, where she immersed herself in health-supportive cuisine prepared from whole, organic and seasonal foods. Michelle has worked at some of the best restaurants in the country, has been featured on the Cooking Channel, and has been a contributor for publications such as Sunset Magazine.