Jane Butel BS

Jane Butel Quick Facts

Jane Butel is an internationally recognized authority on the regional cooking of the American Southwest. The daughter and granddaughter of accomplished home economists, Butel is an author, teacher and TV host whose most recent project, Jane Butel’s Southwestern Kitchen, is being presented to public televisions stations nationwide by KUHT-TV, HoustonPBS.Butel’s interest in Southwestern cooking predates its current popularity by decades and, through her cookbooks, she is credited with starting our nation’s love affair with this cuisine. From her first books, Cocinas de New Mexico (1961) and Favorite Mexican Foods (1965), to her latest, Real Women Eat Chiles, A Guide to Lean Southwestern Cooking, she has continued to explore the region’s unique ingredients, recipes and cooking techniques.  In all, she has written 18 cookbooks, including six best-sellers.Prior to following her passion for Southwestern cooking, she was a marketing executive for four major corporations - American Express, General Electric, Con Edison and Public Service Company of New Mexico.  At both American Express and GE, she was the first woman corporate executive. In 1983, she left the corporate world and founded Jane Butel’s Southwestern Cooking School in Albuquerque, recognized by Bon Appétit as one of the best vacation cooking schools in the world.  The school specializes in week long and weekend full participation classes on New Mexican and Southwestern cuisine.  She also founded Jane Butel’s Pecos Valley Spice Company, a trusted source of ingredients critical to authentic Southwestern fare. Butel’s expertise put her in high demand as a consultant, and she worked with companies like Del Taco, El Torrito, Zona Rosa and several luxury hotels.Butel is listed in Who’s Who in American Women, Outstanding Young Women, Platinum Who’s Who and the World Who’s Who.  She is a member of the New York City chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier.Through her writing, teaching and television projects, Butel continues to season this country’s melting pot with the rich culinary, cultural and historical heritage of the American Southwest. 

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