Virginia Willis has cooked Lapin Normandie with Julia Child, prepared lunch for President Clinton, and catered a bowling party for Jane Fonda. She began her culinary career tossing pizzas in college, has since foraged for wild herbs in the Alps, made mustard in Dijon, crushed olives in California, and harvested capers in the shadow of a smoldering volcano in Sicily.
She is the author of the acclaimed cookbooks Bon Appétit, Y'all! Recipes and Stories from Three Generations of Southern Cooking and Basic to Brilliant, Y'all: 150 Refined Southern Recipes and Ways to Dress Them Up for Company Virginia has a popular food blog and website and was named by the Chicago Tribune as one of "Seven Food Writers You Need to Know."
A graduate of L'Academie de Cuisine and Ecole de Cuisine LaVarenne, her first job in a professional kitchen was as an apprentice for Nathalie Dupree's TV cooking show on PBS. Willis has subsequently produced over 1000 TV episodes, working for Martha Stewart, Bobby Flay, and Epicurious on The Discovery Channel.
She has been featured in USA Today, Country Living, and House Beautiful as well as Food52 and CNN.com. She is a contributing editor to Southern Living and her writing has been published in Family Fun, Fine Cooking, and Taste of the South. She has appeared on Martha Stewart Living Television, Paula Deen's Best Dishes, Food Network's Chopped, and as judge on Thrown Down with Bobby Flay.
Virginia is on the Monterey Bay Seafood Watch Blue Ribbon Task Force and the Atlanta Community Food Bank Advisory Board. She is a past president of the Atlanta chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier, a member of Georgia Organics, the International Association of Culinary Professionals, and Southern Foodways Alliance. For more information contact info@virginiawillis.com
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