Jill Silverman Hough

After eleven years as an advertising copywriter, working on many food accounts, I succumbed to the lure of the kitchen and opened the quintessential cafe in Sausalito, California. Five years later, I sold the cafe and have worked as a food writer, recipe developer, and culinary instructor ever since.

Jill Silverman Hough is a food writer, recipe developer, and culinary instructor whose specialty is making food and cooking simple, special, and satisfying.

"A recipe doesn't have to be complicated to be indulgent," she says. "Sprinkle a roast chicken with lavender, substitute dried cherries for raisins in a batch of oatmeal cookies, serve grilled salmon on a bed of arugula—all these things take almost no effort, yet they'll make your otherwise ordinary dishes taste and feel like fancy food."

With a fresh, friendly, and encouraging voice and recipes that quickly and easily deliver casual elegance, Jill makes creativity in the kitchen and delight at the table totally accessible to home chefs.

Her cookbook, 100 Perfect Pairings: Small Plates Recipes to Enjoy with the Wines You Love, is scheduled for release in April 2010. Chock-full of delicious, easy recipes for everyday cooks, it's possibly the first-ever food and wine pairing book decidedly not written for food and wine geeks. Other book projects include developing the recipes for Skinny Bitch in the Kitch, which premiered on the New York Times Best Seller List, and contributing to Weight Watchers and JCPenny’s cookbooks.

Jill's writing and recipes also regularly appear in magazines including Bon Appétit, Cooking Light, Fine Cooking, Country Home, Clean Eating, and Napa Sonoma. And she has developed recipes for corporate clients as well, including Robert Mondavi Winery, Hollandia Produce, Mann Packing, the Cherry Marketing Institute, and the Michigan Asparagus Advisory Board.

As a culinary instructor, Jill spent seven years at COPIA: The American Center for Wine, Food & the Arts and is currently a regular and popular presenter at Ramekins Sonoma Valley Culinary School. As comfortable in the classroom as she is in the kitchen, Jill consistently wows students with her energy, enthusiasm, and immediately-useful information.

The ultimate home chef, Jill relates to students and readers as peers. Maybe that's because she learned about food from her mother, father, and two grandmothers—all excellent cooks. Formal instruction includes a Food Science Certificate from the University of Guelph and a WSET Advanced Certificate in Wines and Spirits.

A member of the San Francisco Professional Food Society, the International Association of Culinary Professionals, and Slow Food, Jill started her career as an advertising copywriter, spending twelve years at agencies in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, on accounts that included TWA, CBS, Huggies, and Hershey's. She left advertising to open the quintessential neighborhood cafe in Sausalito, California, which she owned for five years and where she made—among other things—the world's best chocolate chip cookies.