MARCELLE BIENVENU is a cookbook author and food writer who has been preparing Cajun and Creole dishes since the 1960s. She is currently a chef/instructor at the John Folse Culinary Institute at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, Louisiana.

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She has written a weekly food column, “Creole Cooking,” for The Times Picayune of New Orleans since 1984. She’s worked as a researcher and consultant for Time-Life Books, contributing to a series of books titled Foods of the World. She’s been featured in Food & Wine, Southern Living, Redbook, The New York Times, and other publications.

She is the author of four cookbooks: Who’s Your Mama, Are You Catholic and Can You Make a Roux? (Book 1), Who’s Your Mama…? (Book 2), Cajun Cooking for Beginners, and No Baloney On My Boat.

She co-authored several other cookbooks, including four with renowned Chef Emeril Lagasse. With Judy Walker, food editor for The Times-Picayune, she co-authored Cooking Up A Storm, which was nominated for a James Beard Award in 2009.

A graduate of the University of Southwestern Louisiana, she lives on Bayou Teche in St. Martinville, La., with her husband, Rock Lasserre.