From the Farm to the Fortune 500

Susanne Elizabeth Wilder has come a long way since the summers when she milked cows on her cousins' farm in the U.S. state of Washington. Baking bread and churning butter at the time resulted in a lifetime of inspiration for her career, which has taken the fresh and natural approach to the culinary arts. This experience also instilled a commitment to quality that has been consistently exhibited in the cookbooks that she has both written and styled, along with recipe development for major food chains, food columns for national publications as well as teaching nutrition and cooking classes for health spas and television programs.

Known for her low-fat approach to food, Susanne received her B.S. in Home Economics, Journalism at Washington State University, specializing in foods, nutrition and institutional food management. During her junior year abroad, she was accepted at the prestigious Cordon Bleu in London, taking the advice of her mentor, Julia Child, who steered her toward the London School for its thorough approach to French cuisine in an English-speaking environment. She also studied at La Varenne in Paris and taught courses at the Cordon Bleu Academy in Auckland, New Zealand. This experience gave her a mastery of French Provencale cuisine, creating superb dishes from farm fresh ingredients and presenting them in a Cordon Bleu (or blue ribbon) manner.

This Cordon Bleu experience gave Susanne an introduction to the artistic presentation and styling of food. Returning to the U.S., she embarked upon a career as a culinary consultant, after seven years in the corporate environs, for leading food, restaurant and product development kitchens. On an on-going basis she also conceptualizes and implements food styling and editing assignments for prominent publishing houses and advertising firms.

Susanne's publishing credits include creating and styling food for her best-selling cookbooks (written under the name of Susan E. Mitchell), which include:

• Thirty Minute Meals
• Low-Calorie Dishes
• Fundamentals of Fast and Fresh
• Entertaining Fast and Fresh
• Creative Mexican Cooking
• Arranging Food Beautifully: Tray & Steam Table Art

Creative Mexican Cooking supports her motto that "Mexican food does not have to be fattening, greasy or spicy." Her most recent cookbook is for foodservice and is a culmination of 20 years of consulting. These books are products of extensive world travel, research and teaching on cooking healthy gourmet foods. She embellishes the principles of excellence learned at the Cordon Bleu, as she creatively enhances classic recipes by replacing heavy foundation ingredients with healthy, savoury alternatives.

Client References:

• Restaurants Unlimited Inc. Seattle
• The Soup Exchange, San Diego
• General Foods (Dessert Line)
• General Mills (The Red Lobster)
• Applebee's International, Inc.
• Lone Star Restaurants, Inc.
• La Victoria Mexican Foods
• Harris Teeter, Inc.
• Puget Consumer Coop
• New Zealand Green Lip Mussels
• Hollywood Safflower Oil
• California Avocados, Olives and Figs
• Wendy's Ice Cream, Australia
• Buderim Ginger, Australia
• Oceanspray Rubyred Grapefruit & Strawberry Juice

The Distinctive Light Style Continues

California • Florida • Queensland • Western Australia

In Perth Susanne brings a wealth of training and experience in every level of the food industry. Her skills are integrated to provide clients with accomplished services in all areas of food presentation, preparation and training, including:

• Recipe and product development
• Speciality cooking classes and seminars
• Food, prop and stage styling for print & film
• Nutrition consulting and recipe analysis
• Food marketing and public relations
• Guest chef appearances, media spokesperson
• Food and travel writing, newsletters and restaurant reviews
• Food Service employee training; front and back of the house
• Culinary consulting for television programming and CDRoms
• PR and marketing for Australian Furi Knives

When it comes to food, whether in your business, for a special event or service, give Susanne a call:

0407 649 437
susan@fstnfrsh.com