Lynette Shirk is an accomplished chef and cookbook author. She has authored or co-authored 8 books, served as the corporate pastry chef for Williams-Sonoma, and worked in kitchens of some of the best restaurants in the country. She has appeared on QVC and numerous television and radio programs.

Lynette is a native of Warren, Ohio. She got her first culinary experience in nearby Columbus, making pizza while attending The Ohio State University. She graduated in 1989 with a B.A. in Classics, and promptly moved to San Francisco to attend California Culinary Academy. While attending CCA, she started working in the pastry department at well-known restaurant Chez Panisse across the bay in Berkeley.

She continued building her presence in the San Francisco restaurant community by working in pastry at Postrio and Masa's, before returning to Chez Panisse to continue in pastry and augment her savory culinary training. Her first Pastry Chef positions followed at restaurants Bizou and Stars. She cooked with Chef Derek Burns as Guest Pastry Chef at the James Beard House in New York City, and she became Burns's Sous Chef for several projects after that, including the Hornblower Dining Yachts, where nightly she sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge while overseeing the galley.

In 1993, Lynette created her Java Lava candy, a peanut brittle concoction that substituted roasted coffee beans for peanuts, and to acquire a deeper understanding of coffee she went to work for Spinelli Coffee. Shortly after, she co-wrote and edited recipes for a cookbook titled, Wild Women In The Kitchen: 101 Rambunctious Recipes and Tasty Tales.

Lynette was then recruited to Sacramento and helped open Casey's Bakery with former Spago Pastry Chef Casey Hayden. Afterward, she returned to San Francisco to accept the role of Pastry Chef at Williams-Sonoma corporate headquarters. There she had the pleasure of making the birthday cakes for Founder Chuck Williams' 85th birthday celebration.

Lynette’s entrepreneurial spirit continued to percolate and she expanded her Java Lava experience by starting Volcano Candy, launching 5 new flavors and a website to promote them. Besides her culinary career and success with Volcano Candy, Lynette designed and produced handmade jewelry in different food motifs such as candy, cheese and fruit. Her earrings were featured in the February, 1992 issue of Bon Appetit magazine. She has also made and sold candles that looked like coffee shop lattes, and candles made to look like cappuccinos in vintage Melmac cups. She was also accidentally captured in the documentary film, Crumb, shown sitting at a street cafe sipping a drink with a friend.

While selling her Volcano Candy at craft fairs, candy stores and flea markets, Lynette began to include signed copies of Wild Women In The Kitchen. The continued popularity of the book and the enthusiasm of people who wanted her to include an inscription to either their mother or daughter became the inspiration for The Mother Daughter Cookbook. Suddenly cookbooks began to flow from her creative mind, and over a period of 2 years she wrote more than 6 cookbooks and 1500 recipes.

Lynette can now be found in Flower Mound, Texas writing cookbooks and enjoying the flavors of Texas barbecue, Southwestern, and TexMex cuisines. She can be reached by emailing lynetteshirk@hotmail.com.