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At our AGM, Mary Risley was awarded the
SFPFS Lifetime Achievement Award. Sponsorship Chair, John Wiest, gives
us a profile of
by John Wiest
From years of experience, Mary Risley, founder and director of Tante
Marie’s Cooking School in San Francisco can tell you the ingredients for
a successful chef: passion, dedication and a fine-tuned palate.
Risley started Tante Marie’s in 1973, teaching classes in the tiny
kitchen of her San Francisco home. “I learned how to cook well in small
spaces,” she laughs.
When people asked her where to attend a professional cooking school, she
advised them to study in Paris. “Then I thought, why not learn to cook
in San Francisco? We have an abundance of fresh fruits, vegetables and
fish.”
In 1979, she built a bright, airy kitchen in North Beach with space for
16 students and offered professional programs in general cooking and
pastry. Her popular avocational classes continue at night and on
weekends. Early guest instructors were local chefs who went on to become
international celebrities, including Jeremiah Tower, Ken Hom, and Carlo
Middione.
Risley was a budding chef by age 9, collecting recipes and baking her
way through a book ordered from the back of a box of Baker’s Chocolate.
A native of Toronto, Risley says her mother was an accomplished cook who
served fresh artichokes and spinach salad – novelties in the 1950s.
But Risley didn’t turn this passion into a career until later in life.
Until her 30th birthday, she worked in investment banking. One day, she
realized “banking no longer fascinates me.” So she decided to pursue her
food passion. In her characteristically determined way, Risley took
every cooking class offered in San Francisco, then studied at London’s
Cordon Bleu, La Varenne in Paris and with James Beard, Jacques Pepin,
Madeleine Kamman and Lorenza de’ Medici.
Risley has been honored by many local and national organizations
including “Cooking Teacher of the Year” in 1988 by Bon Appetit magazine,
the San Francisco Chronicle and the James Beard Foundation.
Mary is also a writer and published cookbook author with her first book,
THE TANTE MARIE’S COOKING SCHOOL COOKBOOK (Simon & Schuster, 2003).
Risley’s passion for food and cooking extends to the community. In 1987,
she launched Food Runners, a volunteer organization that picks up excess
food from more than 500 restaurants and other businesses and delivers it
to neighborhood feeding programs throughout San Francisco. Nationally,
she’s chaired fundraising efforts for Share Our Strength to support
hunger relief programs as well.
Thank you everyone for honoring me with the Honorary Lifetime
Achievement Award from the SFPFS! Although it doesn't feel like a
lifetime, it was about 30 years ago when I first started going to the
first Food Society meetings--I remember the early days well. And, it has
been over 30 years that I have run Tante Marie's Cooking School as a
full-time culinary school in Northbeach and over 20 years since starting
Food Runners. I believe that Tante Marie's is still doing well because
of our efforts to see that everyone attending class has a good
experience, and I believe that Food Runners is thriving because of the
continued support of the SFPFS and individuals like you who don't want
to see food go to waste. Thank you so very much for this Award--I am
truly honored!
Mary Risley
Feb. 2010
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Mary Risley
Weezie Mott
Phyllis
Larsen
Phyllis
Lucas-Haddow
Jane
St.Claire
Janice
Nieder |
