Marisa Churchill

Marisa's love of cooking began early in life. As a young girl she cooked in the kitchen with her Greek grandmother. By her grandmother's side Marisa learned how to cure her own olives, make homemade breads and pastas, and how to make a wide variety of authentic Greek dishes.

In 1999 Marisa decided to turn her life-long passion for cooking into a career. She graduated from the California Culinary Academy, and later continued her culinary education in savory cooking and advanced pastry skills at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone. Marisa has worked at such notable restaurants as Tra Vigne, Rubicon, The Slanted Door, LuLu, Ame, and Yoshi's. She's currently the head of recipe development for the Mezzetta product line, and is the consulting pastry chef for several Bay Area restaurants.

Marisa's work and particularly her low-fat desserts have been featured in the San Francisco Chronicle, Food and Wine, and Bon Appetit. In 2007 she was chosen as one of the top 40 pastry chefs in the country by Food Arts magazine. Marisa has appeared on Bravo's Top Chef, NBC, Comcast, Tokyo tv, Plum tv, and The Food Network!

Marisa Churchill recently published Sweet & Skinny, her debut cook book which features one hundred low-fat recipes (including more than twenty-five sugar-free variations) that show readers how to indulge in dessert while maintaining a healthy figure and lifestyle. For more information, or to purchase a copy, please visit http://marisachurchill.com