about


Get to Know Your Instructor

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about


Get to Know Your Instructor

 
 

Culinary Instructor

In 1969, I began teaching cooking classes in my Los Angeles’ home to raise money for my children’s elementary school. The success of these classes led to my opening a professional cooking school and cookware shop in the San Fernando Valley called Marlene Sorosky’s Cooking Center. From 1978 to 1982, I taught 8 to 10 classes a week in my school, and also assisted such notables as Julia Child, James Beard and Jacques Pepin in live demonstrations and on television. For many years I traveled across the country giving cooking demonstrations and lectures to groups ranging in size from one hundred to two thousand. My fun-filled classes provide creative recipes that are easy to duplicate at home using readily available ingredients and materials.

 
 

Feeding James Beard my Italian Minestrone. Danny Kaye looks on.

I often worked with Julia assisting her in her West Coast cooking demonstrations, as well as on Good Morning America.

 
 

Author

I have written eight cookbooks, which have sold over one million copies.

  • In 1985, my Dessert Lover’s Cookbook. (Harper & Row) won the IACP/Seagram’s Award for best cookbook in the dessert category.

  • In 1995, Entertaining On The Run: Easy Menus for Faster Lives, (William Morrow) won the James Beard award for the best book in the entertaining category.

  • In 1994, two of my top sellers, Cooking for Entertaining,(HP Books, 1975) and Year ‘Round Holiday Cookbook (Harper & Row, 1982) were updated and revised. In 1997, Chronicle Books published a revised edition of mySeason’s Greetings: Cooking & Entertaining for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years.

  • Also in 1997, William Morrow published my Fast & Festive Meals for the Jewish Holidays, which was nominated for a James Beard award.

 

Jacques Pepin who often taught in my school, and Danny Kaye, who was a fabulous cook. We all loved cooking together.

 

Personal

I grew up in Beverly Hills, California, and from 1958 to 1961, attended UCLA. My final college semester was interrupted when my physician husband was drafted and stationed in Southern France for two years. It was in France that I became enamored with cooking and attended various professional culinary classes and workshops. I honed my skills by entertaining the officers and their wives and earned the reputation as the best hostess on the base. I attribute my light-hearted, uncomplicated approach to cooking and entertaining to the thousands of meals I’ve prepared for my 4 children and 5 grandchildren. In 2022, I moved to Sun City, California, where I happily reside and continue to interact with many colleagues in the food world and now happily, once again, host monthly cooking classes in my home with my “Marlene Sorosky’s Cooking and Luncheon Club” series.

 

… and much more!

I have great memories of my many years teaching for Marlene at her cooking school in the San Fernando Valley. As a special bonus, she always made delicious dishes for me, like her Chicken Molé, which was one of the best I’ve ever eaten.
— Jacques Pépin