Pranee Khruasanit Halvorsen "best known as Pranee" first learned Thai cooking as a child in Phuket,
Thailand, where her mom was a village chef famous for her Hua Mok, fish cake.
Pranee’s earliest kitchen chores included grating coconut, pounding curry paste and cooking rice. By age 12,
she took on more responsibility as the substitute cook for the family.
Later, she worked for the Public Health Department on weekdays while
helping with her family's food business on weekends.
When she met and married Robert Halvorsen, an economics professor
at the University of Washington, and moved to Seattle, Pranee brought
along a mortar and pestle and filled her kitchen with Thai herbs,
spices and cooking equipment. Soon, friends started asking her for
Thai cooking lessons.
“The best way to enjoy Thai food is to cook and share it with friends,”
she says. “I loved the idea of having good times, socializing with
people and sharing food the way it’s done in Thailand.” Teaching
cooking, she discovered, was also more fun because she could share
her skills and experiences along with the laughter and excitement
of each culinary result.
Today, Pranee is a member of the International Association of Culinary
Professionals (IACP), a caterer, tour guide and cooking instructor
whose popular classes in Thai cuisine are sellouts throughout the
Northwest. Over the past seven years, her lively public speaking
skills and enthusiasm and passion for teaching have caught fire.
She is a culinary educator at PCC Cooks, Sur La Table, Dish It Up,
A Chef’s Kitchen, Bayview School of Cooking, Blue Ribbon Cooking
Culinary Center, Pacific Culinary Studio, Cook’s Pots & Table
Tops, In Good Taste Cooking School and Cook's World. She has been
featured in the Seattle Times, The Olympian, Enterprise Newspapers,
Evergreen Monthly and Northwest Asian Weekly, to name a few.
Her recipes appear in The Veg-Feasting Cookbook (Book Publishing
Co., 2005) and fund-raising cookbooks for KCTS, Seattle’s public
television station, which also telecast her cooking demonstration
as part of its pledge drive. Her enjoyable demonstrations and cooking
draw crowds at numerous Northwest culinary events, including:
Healthy Living Expo, hosted by KING-TV in Seattle
Feast with Friends, sponsored by Futurewise, a Washington group
dedicated to ensuring Washington and local governments manage growth
responsibly
Chefs in the Field: A Harvest Celebration Farm Tour, sponsored
by King County Extension Food and Farms
VegFest, sponsored by the Vegetarians of Washington, which draws
nearly 100,000 to Seattle Center each year
Pranee visits Thailand annually to collect and preserve recipes
from her family and her hometown Thai village. She leads culinary
trips to Thailand where she teams up with other Thai chefs so Westerners
can experience Thai food and culture in Bangkok, Ayuthaya, Chiang
Mai, Krabi, Phang Nga and Phuket.
Pranee also offers private cooking lessons in home kitchens and
caters private parties with authentic four-course Thai dinners.
She focuses on fresh ingredients and uses Thai herbs from local
markets.
Jerry Traunfeld
As executive chef of The Herbfarm since 1990, Jerry Traunfeld combines
his passion for cooking with a love of gardening and garners national
attention for his innovative multi-course menus. An expert in
the subject of culinary herbs, he has been featured in The New
York Times Magazine, Food and Wine, Bon Appetit, Gourmet, Fortune,
and many other publications. He has appeared on Martha Stewart
Living, Better Homes and Gardens Television, and The Food Network
and is a regular guest on Public Radio's The Splendid Table.
Nancy Leson of The Seattle Times, named Jerry "an
incomparable chef/genius" in a 4 star review, and in Bon
Appetit's Decade of Dining issue, Jerry was named one of the "chefs
who made a difference". The Herbfarm Restaurant was ranked
number 15 of the 50 best restaurants in the United States by Gourmet.
USA Today's Jerry Shriver named his dinner at The Herbfarm
as his top meal of 2002 and it is the only restaurant in the Northwest
to be awarded 5 diamonds by AAA
Jerry is the recipient of the 2000 James Beard award for Best
Chef; Northwest / Hawaii. He is the author of The Herbfarm Cookbook;
200 Herb-Inspired Recipes Plus a Complete Guide to Growing, Handling,
and Cooking with Fresh Herbs, which won The International Association
of Cooking Professionals award. His second book, The Herbal Kitchen;
Cooking with Fragrance and Flavor, will be out in November of
2005.
Chef,
cooking instructor, and food journalist, Greg Atkinson directs
"Culinary Consulting," a restaurant consulting service based on
Bainbridge Island near Seattle. As executive chef at Canlis Restaurant,
Atkinson earned national acclaim, placing Canlis among the "Fifty
Best Restaurants" in Gourmet magazine and the Saveur 100. As chef
at IslandWood, an environmental learning center on Bainbridge,
Atkinson was instrumental in establishing the sustainable cuisine
program that helps school age children understand the impact of
their food choices on the natural world. 
"Nito" Carpita is the Director and principal instructor
of the cooking school. A Certified Culinary Professional (CCP)
under the auspices of the International Association of Culinary
Professionals (IACP), she is French trained and continually updates
her education with courses at Lenôre and Alain Ducasse professional
schools. She has also participated in culinary workshops and study
tours in Australia, Canada, Italy, Holland, Japan, Mexico, Switzerland,
and several regions of the United States.
Pamela
Sheldon Johns is a cookbook author with a diverse culinary background.
A former cooking school director, she now travels and lectures
to groups such as the International Association of Culinary Professionals,
the American Institute of Wine & Food, the Southern California
Culinary Guild, Women for WineSense, and the Smithsonian Institute.
Her first book, The Healthy Gourmet Cookbook, was a James Beard
Cookbook Award nominee. Parmigiano! received a foreign journalism
award from Maria Luigia in Parma. Italian Food Artisans was recognized
in the top three Italian cookbooks in 1999 by the World Cookbook
Revue. 
Chef Greg Johnson began his cooking career in 1989 doing apprentice work for various restaurants in Los Angeles,
California. Soon after he attended and graduated from the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco,
California and worked in some of the areas top restaurants including The Hotel Donatello,
Restaurant Teatro, Zuni Cafe and Umberto's. With a penchant for traveling he landed a
Sous Chef position at a top restaurant in Maui, Hawaii and ran the pastry department at
a well known restaurant in Monterrey, Mexico. His passion for food has led him all over the world including France,
Spain, Italy, England, and Costa Rica. In 1995 he landed in Seattle, Washington where he now calls home.