Meet Cat Cora

On and off-screen, Chef Cat Cora (www.catcora.com) continues to make a lasting impression on the culinary community. Her food aspirations began at an early age, and by 15, she developed a business plan for her own restaurant. In 2005, she made television history on Food Network’s Iron Chef America as the first and only female Iron Chef, and in 2006 Bon Appétit Magazine named her Executive Chef and bestowed her with their Teacher of the Year Award. From partnering with Macy’s for a new restaurant concept that premiered in December 2008 to her first stand alone restaurant that opened at Walt Disney World BoardWalk Resort in September 2009, Cat’s bringing a taste of her culinary influence to both coasts.

FAMILY TIES

Cat’s upbringing in Jackson, Mississippi’s intimate Greek community had an incalculable influence on her career. Raised by a family for whom cooking and eating were the center of life, meals at the Cora house often combined spices from the South with fresh cheeses and home-cured olives sent by relatives from the island of Skopelos. Her first cookbook, Cat Cora’s Kitchen was inspired by her Greek and Southern heritage and contains many of her family’s favorite recipes.

In her second book, Cooking From The Hip: Fast, Easy, Phenomenal Meals (Houghton Mifflin), Cat elevates at-home cooking to new levels, applying her “go-with-what-you’ve got” philosophy to creating simple, yet sensational meals. Cat’s third cookbook, Classics With a Twist: Fresh Takes on Favorite Dishes (Houghton Mifflin, June 2010) showcases her signature fast and healthy approach to family-friendly recipes from around the world.

PARTNER PROJECTS

In January 2011, Cat started the New Year by launching her first line of cookware with Starfrit, Canada’s leading purveyor of kitchen preparation products. The Cat Cora by Starfrit line emphasizes clever, eco-friendly cookware and kitchen gadgets that encompass food preparation, serveware and bakeware with products like The Cook N Serve Casseroles, Anodized Fry Pans, Acacia Utensils, Cutlery and Silicone tools.

Also in January 2011, Cat introduced Cat Cora’s Kitchen, a line of olive oils, vinegars, cooking sauces and tapenades by Gaea, the leader in Greek specialty food products. The line will be available nationwide in fall 2011. Together Gaea and Cat represent the best of healthy Mediterranean lifestyle and environmental responsibility.

In September 2010, Cat and Disney Online launched Muppets Kitchen, a series of webisodes featuring Cat and co-hosted by a spicy Italian Muppet named Angelo. With the help of Muppet friends, Cat and Angelo are helping families rediscover time together through the joy of cooking. Launched in conjunction with Muppets Kitchen is HastyTasty Cooking Tips With Cat Cora and the Muppets. These instructional webisodes provide moms with advice on how to get their kids excited about cooking as well as step-by-step instructions for preparing nutritious meals the whole family will love.

In March 2011, Cora released her first children’s book, Suitcase Surprise for Mommy (Dial Books, 2011), a sweet and comforting tool for kids and parents to use when Mom or Dad have to travel.

Passionate about teaching families healthy eating habits at home, Cat began working with Disney in 2008, where she created a Disney Video on Demand series, “Disney’s What’s Cooking with Cat Cora.” Mutually committed to encouraging good family eating, Cat and Disney opened Kouzzina (Greek for “kitchen”) at Walt Disney World’s Boardwalk Resort in September 2009. Kouzzina offers a menu of Mediterranean-style cuisine that pays tribute to Cat’s Greek heritage.

A member of Macy’s Culinary Council, Cat partnered with the department store to launch CCQ (Cat Cora’s Que) at their Signature Kitchen restaurant concept in California’s South Coast Plaza location. Inspired by her own unique barbeque traditions, Cat designed CCQ as a fast casual concept that defines her passion for global BBQ flavors.

Most recently, Cat opened her first airport restaurant in the Virgin terminal at San Francisco International Airport in April 2011. With an emphasis on market-to-table and seasonal foods, Cat Cora San Francisco’s sophisticated small plates and cocktail lounge is changing the way travelers eat by making a fine dining experience available while on the go.

COOKING FOR A CAUSE

Outside of the kitchen, Cat is known for her philanthropy. She is President and Founder of Chefs for Humanity (www.chefsforhumanity.org), an organization that originated in response to the 2004 Tsunami disaster. Modeled after Doctors Without Borders, the not-for-profit gathers the culinary community together to raise funds and provide resources for important emergency, educational and hunger-related causes. Recognizing Cat’s altruistic determination in the food world, UNICEF named her a nutritional spokesperson to help raise awareness for humanitarian crises around the world.

In June 2010, Cat joined First Lady Michelle Obama as part of her Chefs Move To Schools campaign in an effort to provide nutritional guidance and education from professional chefs to schools nationwide. Cat is presently working on adopting an elementary school near her home in Santa Barbara, CA.

PATH TO SUCCESS

With advice from of her famous mentor Julia Child, Cat left Mississippi for New York, where she received the education of her dreams at The Culinary Institute of America. While in New York, she apprenticed with and then worked for Chef Anne Rozenweig at Arcadia and worked at the Beekman Tavern under Chef Larry Forgione of An American Place.

Cat’s culinary education continued in Europe completing apprenticeships with two of France’s three-star Michelin chefs, George Blanc of Vonnas and Roger Verge. After returning to New York again, Cat honed her skills as a Sous Chef at The Old Chatham Shepherding Company under Chef Melissa Kelly. She soon headed West to plant her roots in Northern California, where she served as Chef de Cuisine at Napa Valley’s Bistro Don Giovanni.

Cat made her TV debut in 1999, as co-host of Food Network’s, Melting Pot with Rocco Di Spirito. She went on to host My Country My Kitchen: Greece, Date Plate, and was one of the featured hosts on Fine Living’s Simplify Your Life. A documentary, Cat’s In The Kitchen, was also made about her first James Beard dinner in April, 2002.

Preceding Iron Chef America, Cat co-hosted Kitchen Accomplished on Food Network, where she worked with a design expert and contractor to surprise a homeowner with a 3-day kitchen makeover. In 2006, Cat appeared in NBC’s Primetime Miniseries, Celebrity Cooking Showdown, where celebrities were paired with famous chefs and competed in a timed cook-off à la Iron Chef.

Cat resides in the Santa Barbara area with her family, including her biggest fans, her four sons.

Follow Cat on Twitter (@catcora) and Facebook.