Lynn Nicholson

Award-winning chef Lynn F. Nicholson brings more than 30 years of travel and culinary expertise to her books. She is the co-author of Healthy Spa Cuisine: 400 Signature Recipes from the World's Top Spas (Adams Media, June 2003) and The Wine Lover's Healthy Weight Loss Plan (McGraw Hill, August 2006). "Easily the most mouthwatering diet book I've ever encountered, the recipe section includes more than 100 elegant, deceptively simple dishes that highlight fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains. ... The descriptions of the region's [Italy] delicious foods, simple pleasures and joyful, relaxed approach to friends, family and the sharing of food and wine will spark both longing and inspiration in every reader." (Oregon Wine Press, August 2006).

Ms. Nicholson graduated with highest honors from Le Cordon Bleu Program at the Western Culinary Institute in Portland, Oregon. Her internship was fulfilled at Chateau Benoit Winery, Carlton, Oregon. She has been a winner/finalist in numerous national and regional cooking contests. Ms. Nicholson is a past member of the Slow Food Movement, American Culinary Federation, and Women Chefs & Restaurateurs. Her obsession is collecting cookbooks; at last count her collection numbers over 4,000 titles.

Ms. Nicholson is an inveterate traveler, and as a chef, she set out in the 1980's on a 20+ year culinary quest from Africa to Thailand to Malaysia, the South Pacific, South America and beyond, where she immersed herself in each country's cuisines. Local chefs shared the secrets of their art of eating and food preparation skills along her journeys which brought to life the tastes of their native lands. Since then she has continued to educate herself not only about food, but about wine and the pairing of the two. Over the last 30+ years, while pursuing her passion for wine, she has attended prestigious wine events such as the Aspen Food & Wine Festival and others throughout the world, learning about and collecting wine. In the late 90's she decided to intimately explore the wine industry: starting from the ground up, she worked for a winery in Oregon's Willamette Valley as a salesperson, in-house special events caterer, and during crushes helped to harvest grapes and worked in the cellar bottling, etc. She also taught classes to the winery staff on food and wine pairing.

It is through this experience that Ms. Nicholson gained her expertise, imaginative recommendations, and a commonsense approach to the topic. In addition, Ms. Nicholson's entrepreneurial spirit and marketing experience have helped her in her co-ownership/marketing of Tropical Adventures Travel, a highly successful international dive travel company, where she promoted travel to new exciting dive destinations she discovered in Africa, Malaysia, India and the South Pacific and successfully launched Eco Expeditions International, which specialized in ecology dive travel adventures; Bike Treks International, which offered worldwide road and mountain biking tours and women's mountain bike clinics; and Spa Traveler, which promoted culinary and spa travel packages worldwide. In this latter position, Ms. Nicholson promoted culinary tours throughout India, Mexico, Central and South America and was instrumental in implementing spa and vegetarian menus for select spas throughout Mexico.

When Ms. Nicholson is not cooking and writing, she oversees her Arabian horse rescue ranch in Central Oregon where she also breeds and trains Arabian horses and pursues her passion of endurance horse racing.