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About Jennifer Iannolo & Chef Mark Tafoya

For the last 4 years you’ve followed our evolution from articles to recipes, podcasts and videos. Now, at last, we are going past your computer screens and ear buds with something you can actually hold in your hands!

With The Gilded Fork Entertaining at Home: A Year of Dinner Parties, we invite you to throw open your doors to friends and loved ones -- and offer them a seat at your table. And don’t be afraid to ask them to help -- that can be half the fun!

With a baker’s dozen of dinner party menus ranging from casual summer fare to an elegant dinner for two, we’ve compiled colors, flavors and textures from our favorite recipes (along with some new ones!) to indulge your senses with the seasonal tastes that make us happy to be in the kitchen. We’ve also included beverage pairings for each menu, and lots of helpful tips to help take your cooking to the next level.

And in case you haven’t heard, our friends have gotten in on the fun, too! Our readers and listeners helped us to photograph these recipes (some are right there on the cover) and test them extensively, ensuring that our instructions are clear and the recipes as close to fool-proof as possible.

We believe entertaining should be fun and stress-free for all involved, so please feel free to invite us to dinner. We do dishes.

Jennifer:

When most young girls were playing with Barbie dolls, Jennifer Iannolo was playing “food show” in front of her mother’s kitchen window (the camera).

A passion for gastronomy flows through her veins, and her life’s mission is to ignite that same level of excitement in others. Her culinary adventures have been featured in the New York Times bestseller, Secrets of the Young & Successful, as well as BusinessWeek and GoDaddy.com’s television ad campaign.

The Culinary Media Network(R) started as her personal food blog, and quickly grew into online magazine The Gilded Fork. The site was nominated as a finalist for Best Food/Drink Site for the 2005 World Food Media Awards, along with Leite’s Culinaria, BBC Food and Jacques Pepin’s Fast Food My Way.

Now operating under the banner of the Culinary Media Network, founded by Jennifer and her business partner Chef Mark Tafoya, the site features audio and video programming — including the world’s first all-food podcast network — as well as articles, recipes and food blogs.

Sponsors have included Hamilton Beach, Folger’s Gourmet Select, Partida Tequila, Go Daddy and Barilla Pasta, and both Jennifer and Chef Mark’s shows have appeared on Sirius satellite radio.

Prior to her leap into new media, Jennifer spent a decade working with the world’s greatest chefs, including Charlie Trotter, Daniel Boulud, Thomas Keller, Michel Roux, Raymond Blanc, Michel Troisgros and Santi Santamaria. She is the former Director of Culinary Programs for Relais & Chateaux, where she launched the Ecole des Chefs program with more than 100 master and Michelin-starred chefs from around the world. In addition, Jennifer has provided her consulting expertise for the James Beard Awards, Bon Appetit Magazine, American Express, Share Our Strength, New York City’s Restaurant Week, and Taste of the Nation.

As an entrepreneur, Jennifer has shared her insights with students from the Stern School of Business at New York University, where as an undergraduate she helped to create one of the Top Ten Student-Run Businesses in America (1993). She was also featured in a case study for the University of Southern California’s Entrepreneurship program, and has been a guest lecturer at the Culinary Institute of America and Babson College.

Her other published work includes Food and Sensuality: A Perfect Pairing for the anthology Food & Philosophy (2007) and Romantic Love in Atlas Shrugged for the anthology Atlas Shrugged: A Philosophical and Literary Companion (2006).

Jennifer is the C.E.O. of The Gilded Fork, LLC, and lives in New York’s Hudson Valley. She is also the co-founder of Adventures in Gastronomy, LLC, a new media consulting company providing Web 2.0 expertise to businesses ranging from new media startups to large financial institutions. She holds a B.S. in International Business and Marketing from the Stern School of Business at New York University, and studied in Paris through La Sorbonne, L’Ecole des Sciences Politiques, and L’Ecole du Louvre.

Jennifer is available for strategic consulting and public speaking engagements. For more information, please send an e-mail to jenniferATculinarymedianetworkDOTcom.

Mark:

Chef Mark Tafoya is a world traveler and self-taught gourmand, and brings a unique air of aesthetic elegance to the pursuit of culinary adventure. His eloquence is effortlessly conveyed through both the written and spoken word, earning him a nod from Bon Appetit magazine as one of the most compelling culinary podcasters in the new medium with his ReMARKable Palate Podcast.

Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Mark has a soft spot for the foods of the Southwest — green and red chiles, carne adovada, and posole are the foods he grew up loving. Educated at Yale University, Mark began his international food exploration while studying in France; Paris offered a broad education in finding fresh, top-quality ingredients, as well as making the best use of what was locally available.

After graduating from Yale with a B.A. in French Literature and Theater Studies, he spent ten years as a New York actor; he was a member of Tony Randall’s National Actor’s Theater, sharing a Broadway stage with George C. Scott, Charles Durning, and Mr. Randall, as well as acting in Independent films.

Mark has learned about many world cuisines first-hand, and mastered many of his recipes at the source. Favorite locations and cuisines include Japan, China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Italy, Ireland, France, Hungary, Indonesia, Spain, and Greece; he continues to broaden his knowledge base through travel and cultural exchange with other cooks throughout the world. In Mark’s commitment to a multicultural approach to life, he embraces the ideal that one of the best ways we can learn to understand, and indeed celebrate each other, is through cuisine. Something as seemingly small as our approach to food can transform the world in ways both small and vast.

Mark is the Chef/Owner of the ReMARKable Palate Personal Chef Service in New York, NY and a graduate of the Culinary Business Academy. He serves on the National Advisory Council for the U. S. Personal Chef Association, and was twice honored as the USPCA’s Marketer of the Year for 2006 and in 2008.

As Executive Chef and Culinary Editor for the Gilded Fork, Mark brings a unique specialization in micro-cuisines to our repertoire, expanding our flavor horizons ever farther as we explore foodstuffs from around the globe. He is also President of The Gilded Fork, LLC, a new media company he launched in 2006 with business partner Jennifer Iannolo. The same year, the company launched the Culinary Podcast Network, the world’s first all-food podcast channel, which was later renamed Culinary Media Network, and has received more than 2 million downloads to date.

In addition, Mark is the co-founder of Adventures in Gastronomy, LLC, a new media consulting firm providing strategic services for companies ranging from new media startups to large financial institutions. He has also worked with restaurant startups and food service businesses to design customized menus.

In recognition of his work as a personal chef and podcaster, Mark has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Time Out New York, Bon Appetit and the New York Times. He currently resides in Manhattan with his feisty miniature pinscher (and official Gilded Fork taster) Stiva.

Mark is available for consulting and live cooking appearances. For more information, please contact (917) 405-0088 or chefmarkATculinarymedianetworkDOTcom.

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