John Michael Lerma

John Michael grew up on a farm in North Dakota where he learned from his grandmother how to grow fruits and vegetables, prepare large meals, and can preserves. John Michael was a winner at the 2005 and 2006 Great American Pie Festival in Celebration, Florida, sponsored by Crisco and filmed for the Food Network.  A recent guest on KARE 11 Saturday Morning News Show, he demonstrated Academy Award party ideas and recipes from his cookbook.  John Michael has also been a guest on WCCO Sunday Morning Live Show, KSTP, Cities 97 morning show, and along side Willard Scott on the NBC Today Show for the Great American Pie Festival.  Recently he was featured on the Food Network Special—All American Pie Championship, baking his Vidalia onion pie.

John Michael is director of A Gathering in Tuscany at IL Rifugio (www.sojourn-in-italy.com), and a member of Slow Food USA.  He lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota (but after many trips to Italy, likes to call Tuscany his home away from home).  To all his work in the culinary arts (including youth summer cooking camps) John Michael brings a wealth of experience garnered from some of Italy’s finest chefs and restaurateurs.  His cooking classes in the US are constant sell-outs.

After surviving the 1997 flood that destroyed his hometown of Grand Forks, North Dakota, John Michael moved to the Twin Cities of Minnesota where he worked in management at a Fortune 500 company.  John Michael turned to cooking, gardening, and food preservation as a form of relaxation and to recapture the life of contentment he knew growing up in the Red River Valley.  Eventually, John Michael entered his recipes in Minnesota State Fair competitions and has won numerous honors. 

After winning top prize in the 2005 KC Masterpiece “Memorable Meals” Contest for his Unforgettable BBQ Chicken “Zah”, John Michael was featured on Twin Cities KSTP Channel 5 Midday program demonstrating his recipe.  He gave numerous cooking demonstrations at the St. Angus Baking Booth, hosted by Master Chef Klecko, during the 2005 and 2006 Minnesota State Fair.  John Michael is also a Corporate Chef at Cook’s of Crocus Hill in Saint Paul and Edina, Minnesota, and teaches at numerous cooking schools throughout the Twin Cities. 

John Michael received a degree in English from the University of North Dakota and has had several short stories, poems, and plays published in regional and academic texts.  He is a recipient of the Gladys Boen Award for Fiction and Non-fiction.

John Michael Lerma's Garden County was released October 14, 2005. His Il Rifugio culinary workshops will feature recipes from the chapter "La Dolce Vita Gathering", in addition to numerous exquisite dishes he has collected on his travels throughout Italy over the past several years. Look for it at your local book stores or go to his site www.gardencounty.info to order it directly. You will also find recipes and links to various television appearances, awards John Michael has recently won and future events he is participating or cooking in.

JOHN MICHAEL LERMA'S GARDEN COUNTY COOKBOOK HAS BEEN NOMINATED FOR THE 2006 INDEPENDENT PUBLISHER BOOK AWARD!