Cajun Cooking for Beginners
MARCELLE BIENVENU of St. Martinville, La., is the author of two cookbooks, one titled Who's Your Mama, Are You Catholic, and Can You Make A Roux? and the other, Cajun Cooking for Beginners. She co-authored two others, along with Chef Emeril Lagasse of New Orleans, titled Louisiana: Real and Rustic and A Creole Christmas. In the early 1970's she worked as a researcher and consultant for Time-life Books, contributing to a series of books titled Foods of the World. She's been featured in Food & Wine, Southern Living, Redbook and The New York Times, as well as in several local and regional newspapers and magazines. Since 1984 she has written a weekly food column, "Creole Cooking," for The Times Picayune of New Orleans. The column is now syndicated and published regularly in several other Louisiana newspapers, as well. She edited the 1987 edition of The Picayune's Creole Cookbook, originally published in 1901 and re-issued to celebrate the newspaper's 150th anniversary. She has extensive catering management experience for restaurants including K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen, Commander's Palace and Brennan's of Houston. A graduate of the University of Southwestern Louisiana, she owned and operated a restaurant named Chez Marcelle near Lafayette, La., in the early 1980s.