Cynthia D. Bertelsen
Cynthia D. Bertelsen grew up in a blustery cold climate, where she taught herself how to cook out of curiosity about foods from other cultures—and because what else is there to do except cook when snow covers everything? After earning graduate degrees in history and human nutrition, she worked as a nutritionist, caterer, restaurant consultant, and Peace Corps trainer during numerous overseas assignments in Haiti, Morocco, Honduras, and Burkina Faso.
Giving in to her latent bibliophilia, Ms. Bertelsen later went to library school and ended up as a freelance indexer of medical and culinary books. She now spends her time as a culinary historian and food writer, being particularly noted for her expertise in French, sub-Saharan African, and North African cuisines.
She also devotes considerable time to her food history blog, “Gherkins & Tomatoes / Cornichons & Tomates”: http://www.gherkinstomatoes.com
A member of the National Book Critics Circle, Ms. Bertelsen writes book reviews for publications such as Gastronomica, Alimentum, Food & Culture, The National Catholic Reporter, The Roanoke Times, The Digest of Middle Eastern Studies, Library Journal, and the newsletter of the Culinary Historians of New York.
Ms. Bertelsen is the author of a forthcoming book, Mushroom: A Global History (Reaktion Books, U.K.). And she still cooks food from around the world, thanks to her collection of 3500 cookbooks and the Internet.
