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Culinary Arts (CULA): Homework Help

This guide will help you find information about cooking as a profession (including molecular gastronomy and food safety), and restaurant management.

Finding Biographies

To find biographical information about famous chefs and restaurateurs, try these Library resources.

 

SpartaCat (Library catalog) -- Many cookbooks written by chefs contain a section about the author. To find these books, as well as full biographies, search for the person by name, or by using these subjects.

  • "Cooks, Biography"
  • "Women cooks, Biography"
  • "Celebrity chefs, Biography"
  • "Restaurateurs, Biography"

 

Business and lifestyle magazines, as well as trade publications for the restaurant industry, often publish profiles or interviews that can reveal interesting information about the person you're researching. If the person is deceased, a detailed obituary might be useful.

All of these can be found by using the EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) or ProQuest databases. Search for the person's name and select the type of article you want from the menu.

 

Here is how it looks in EDS:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is how it looks in ProQuest:

 

Chefs on Film

The Films on Demand database is a great place to look for television programs and films about well-known people. Here are some interviews and documentaries featuring famous chefs and restaurateurs.

  • Creators in Cuisine and Design -- An interview with award-winning South African chef Andrew Draper.
  • Denmark's Culinary Revolution -- Chef Rene Redzepi discusses the use of wild and organically grown local foods at his restaurant in Copenhagen.
  • Eat, Cook, Love: Celebrity Chefs -- How do chefs market themselves? Here's a sneak peek at how famous chefs become household names. 
  • Eat, Cook, Love: Cooking Shows -- Featuring Julia Child.
  • Eat This New York -- The story of two friends attempting to open a restaurant in New York City. Interview segments include Daniel Boulud, Sirio Maccioni, Keith McNally, Danny Meyer, Drew Nieporent, Ruth Reichl, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, and Tim Zagat.
  • Finding Your Roots: Children of Exile -- This series presents genealogical research about a variety of celebrities. In this episode, chef David Chang learns about his Korean ancestors. 
  • Meet Mónica and Claudia -- Mónica Patiño is one of Mexico's most famous chefs. She's one of the few women to make it to the top in Mexico's macho world of cooking. Her sister Claudia is a designer. Together their dream is to open one of Mexico City's finest restaurants.
  • Starting a Restaurant: The Start Up Experience -- Featuring Randy Price, CEO of Rocky Mountain Restaurant Group, Colorado.

How to GET HELP from a LIBRARIAN

Need help with finding sources, searching databases, formatting citations, or deciding on a paper topic? The NCC Librarians are here for you.

Both the Mack Library (Bethlehem) and ESSA Library (Pocono) are open if you'd like to visit in person, or you can chat online with a Librarian no matter where you are! Go to the Library's home page and click on the orange "Ask the Librarian" tab to start chatting. 

To find out when we're open, take a look at the Library's hours.

For more ways to reach us, and answers to our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), click here. You can also send an e-mail question to askthelibrarian@northampton.edu, or set up a private appointment with a Librarian by using the "Book A Librarian" request form.

We look forward to hearing from you!