Hello, I am Diane Morgan. Welcome to DianeMorganCooks.com.  This is the space where I will share recipes and cooking insights, let you know when I am teaching a cooking class or food writing course, talk about my cookbook projects, upload images from my travels, and provide details and opinions on kitchen design. Other aspects of my life, such as my commitment to my pilates workouts, my joy of being in nature, visiting farmers’ markets, eating in restaurants and cafes, finding great coffee, and indulging in pastries and chocolate will find their way onto these pages as I evolve this new website.

Cooking has been my passion and my profession for the last 37 years. Yes, 37 years! I knew by the time I graduated from Reed College with a degree in mathematics that I loved to cook, read cookbooks like they were novels, explore global cuisines, and travel with a culinary focus. It was a summer job working in a restaurant, after my junior year of college, that fired my passion. I found a wonderful mentor and teacher in John Conway, who, as it turns out, was a close friend of James Beard. Three summers working at his restaurant, The Farmhouse, in Pt. Townsend, Washington convinced me to pursue cooking as a career. 

Following college, I spent almost six years in Chicago. I was a caterer and then a chef for an executive dining room. Shortly after moving to Chicago from Portland, I met my second mentor, Alma Lach. Alma had been food editor of the Chicago Sun Times for 20 years and retired from the newspaper world to start an avocational cooking school. I became her assistant and ultimately a life-long friend. It was her passion for teaching and writing that truly informed my career. 

Leaving behind Chicago’s blustery frigid winters, I moved back to the Pacific Northwest, settling in Portland, Oregon. My focus shifted to teaching cooking classes and pursuing a career in food writing. My first cookbook, Entertaining People: Menus from a Pacific Northwest Cooking School, was a self-published endeavor, written with four other culinary instructors at the Kitchen Kaboodle Cooking School. Astoundingly, we won an IACP/Seagrams cookbook award. A second book followed, and then many more. 

My career has been primarily focused on writing cookbooks, with an added blend of teaching, freelance writing, and recipe development for publications and brands. At this point, I have written 18 cookbooks which includes my newest book, Salmon: Everything You Need to Know+ 45 Recipes. As a complete career high, my last book, Roots: The Definitive Compendium with more than 225 Recipes won the prestigious James Beard award for vegetable focused and vegetarian cookbooks, in addition to a coveted IACP Cookbook Award in the single subject category. The New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, among others named Roots one of the top cookbooks of the year.  

My other cookbooks include: Skinny Dips, The Christmas Table, The Thanksgiving Table, Grill Every Day, Salmon, Pizza, Delicious Dips, The Thanksgiving Table, Midnight Munchies, Cooking for the Week, The Basic Gourmet, The Basic Gourmet Entertains and Dressed to Grill: Savvy Recipes for Girls Who Play with Fire, all from Chronicle Books. In addition, Gifts Cooks Love, a cookbook I wrote in conjunction with Sur La Table was published by Andrews McMeel. 

My Roots cookbook, including six recipes and beautiful photographs, was highlighted in Sunset Magazine in November 2012. My holiday cookbook, The Christmas Table , was featured in Oprah’s “O” magazine with six-pages of glorious photographs highlighting food gifts from the kitchen. Better Homes & Gardens featured six recipes from The Christmas Table in a beautifully illustrated article. And my decadent recipe for Hot Chocolate Fudge Cakes was on the cover of December 2008’s issue of Cooking Light magazine.  

For almost five years, I was a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times food section. In addition, I have written for Bon Appétit, Fine Cooking, Cooking Light, Clean Eating, The Oregonian, and Edible Portland. TV appearances have included the Today Show, ABC World News Now, CBS Early Show, The Food Network, Smart Solutions on HGTV, Seasonings on PBS and Good Day Oregon. 

Send me an email if you have questions or want to connect. I can be reached at diane (at) dianemorgancooks (dot) com. I’d love to hear from you. 

--Please know, all the content, recipes, and photos on DianeMorganCooks.com hold a copyright and are the property of @dianemorgan. Permission must be granted for any use of this content. Please email me for inquires in this regard.