Food For The Holidays


This week's guests include Anna Teresa Callen, noted cookbook author and educator and founding member of the James Beard Institute in New York, Mr. Paolo Vannini, Vice President/Managing Director of Alta Cucina, a members only organization of shoppers of gourmet Italian food products and services, Mr. Morten Sohlberg, President & CEO of Smorgas Chef Restaurant Group, perveyors of Scandinavian cuisine with three restaurants in New York including Scandinavian House, where the theme is the "sensory experience" and Ms.Hsin-Mei Agnes Hsu, Director and Dean of the Confuscius Institute/China Instutite and member of the Unesco World Heritage Center, scholar, author and board member of the American Museum of Natural History. Each guests will talk about the type of cuisine best served for the holidays along with some of the customs and traditions that go along with them.







Guests

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Anna Teresa Callen, Cookbook Author, Founder
Division of Paleontology
James Beard Institute


To know Anna Teresa Callen is to love her. Perhaps that is why many people do their best to attend her cooking classes. Another reason is that she has written tow of the best culinary reads regarding Italian regional cooking, Food and Memories of Abruzzo and My Love For Naples. A native of Guardiagrele in the Province of Chieti (Vitacolonna is her maiden name) her approach and method is a combination of tradition, straightforwardness and freshness in every sense of the word.

A founding member of the James Beard Institute, she is nevertheless very accessible. Her teaching is much like her writing in that it is accompanied by anecdotes that enhance the cooking experience. Her residence has been New York City for the last four decades. Although a bona fide gourmand Anna Teresa has come here via World War II, Italian Beauty Pageants, the Cinema, Romantic Playwrights, Television, Eccentric Cats, Radio, Hollywood and her favourite recipes.

You can read more about Anna and even find a recipe or two at her website, www.annateresacallen.com









Morten Sohlberg, Founder and CEO
Smörgås Chef Restaurant Group


Born and raised in Norway, Morten comes from a family with long traditions in the fine food service industry. As an experienced entrepreneur, Mr. Sohlberg brings over 15 years of business experience from various industries to Smorgas Chef, including his experience in culinary management, communications, design, and business administration. Prior to co-founding Smörgås, Mr. Sohlberg co-founded Sessions.edu - the world's largest online school of Visual Communication with students from over 110 countries. He served as Sessions' Chief Executive Officer for 5 years, and as Chairman of the Board of Directors for 7 years.

Having studied art at the Istituto per L'Arte in Florence, worked as a designer in Milan, and taught at Parsons School of Design, Mr. Sohlberg also leads the "sensory experience" of the 3 restaurants including the lighting, sound and interior design, as well as the food and plate presentation.

Morten has been recognized with prestigious awards both in the U.S. and internationally. Morten holds degrees from the Nesbru Skole in Oslo, Norway, the Istituto per L'Arte in Florence, Italy, and has pursued entrepreneurial and business studies at the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at NYU. Mr. Sohlberg has also served on DETC's Committee for Government & Public Relations in Washington D.C., and The New School University’s Advisory Board, and currently serves on the board of the Norwegian American Chamber of Commerce in New York.









Dr. Hsin-Mei Agnes Hsu, Director of Education
China Institute


Dr. Hsin-Mei Agnes Hsu, Director of Education and Dean of the Confucius Institute at China Institute, is Program Director of the Summer Institute. Dr. Hsu is an International Expert to UNESCO World Heritage Centre and has served on two serial-nomination committees, the Quapag Ñan (the Main Andean Road) and the Silk Roads, for which she authored "The Exceptional Universal Value of the Road Systems in Ancient Empires: A Comparative Study of the Chinese Oasis Route of the Early Silk Road and the Qhapag Ñan." Dr. Hsu taught Chinese archaeology at Brown University and was a Mellon Foundation research scholar at Stanford University and the Needham Research Institute at Cambridge University, UK. Dr. Hsu is a scholar of Han archaeology, with training in Classical archaeology. She has published on ancient Chinese cartography and comparative issues of early empires, respectively in “An Emic Perspective of the Mapmaker’s Art in Western Han China” (Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 3, 17, 4, 2007) and “Structured Perceptions of Real and Imagined Landscapes in Early Imperial China” in Geography, Ethnography, and Perceptions of the World from Antiquity to the Renaissance. Dr. Hsu received her graduate degrees from the University of Pennsylvania.








Paolo Vannini, Founder and Director
Alta Cucina Inc.


Paolo is the founder and director of the Alta Cucina Society. Previously he was President & CEO of Fiat USA Inc, where he was responsible for providing strategic consulting and business development services for 21 operating companies in North America.

Previously as SVP Corporate Communications, he was responsible for communication and institutional relations for the Fiat Group in North America.

In Europe, as the Group Product Manager of Cinzano Spa, he was responsible for Strategic Marketing.

In India,he was Deputy General Manager for Sesa Seat Information System, one of the first companies to introduce the Yellow Pages business in India.

Born and raises in Torino, Mr. Vannini now resides in Stanford, CT.

He graduated in Business Administration at the University of Torino, Italy.