SHELLEY WISEMAN

Shelley's first contact with Mexico was as a teenager when her father, John Wiseman, a publisher with Time Life Books, and step mother, Sarah, moved to Mexico. It was love at first site. "I fell in love with the sights, sounds and smells of the vibrant street life and markets of Mexico City."  She came back to live there in her thirties after six years in France and opened the cooking school. While teaching French cooking she learned more and more about the Mexican cooking that surrounded her. She worked with Marilyn Tausend of Culinary Adventures, Inc. helping to organizing market tours around Mexico, and learned from Diana Kennedy, Roberto Santibanez and Maria Dolores Torres Yzabal, all of whom gave classes in her kitchen.

When Shelley returned to the U.S. to work at Gourmet Magazine as a Food Editor she found her knowledge of Mexican Cuisine called upon as much as her experience in French cuisine and continued to develop her cooking experience. One of her first important menus in Gourmet was a taco story called !Taquiza! Published in July 1997.

Shelley studied Philosophy at Comell University and worked in the Art Department at House & Garden Magazine before discovering her love of cooking. She worked in various restaurants in New York and Paris to develop her knowledge until she discovered her calling as a teacher in Mexico. She enjoys all means of sharing through teaching, including a radio program she had on English language radio in Mexico City called 'The Creative Cook.' "I love the intimacy of radio and think it is a great medium for sharing food knowledge."

'Just Tacos' (2011) is Shelley (Shelton) Wiseman's second book on Mexican Cuisine. She co-authored 'The Mexican Gourmet' (nominated for a Julia Child cookbook award) in 1995 with Maria Dolores Torres Yzabal while she was living in Mexico City and running a French cooking school, L'Ecole de Cuisine La Place.

Throughout her career, Shelley has dedicated herself to food and culinary communications—inspiring adults and children to cook through hands-on teaching as well as through magazines, books, radio, video and online media.