Karen Stiegler is a culinary educator, recipe developer and recipe tester. Karen holds a Diplome de Patisserie from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and has been teaching American and French pastry and desserts in the U.S. and abroad for over 10 years. She is currently teaching for Williams-Sonoma, and offers group, private, and hands-on courses as well as professional pastry demonstrations in shops and restaurants, and also specializes in Healthy Baking. Karen also has extensive experience in catering of American desserts, cakes and candies. Karen spent three years in Paris researching and teaching French pastries and desserts to Americans abroad, founding her own pastry instruction program. Karen is also a professional cake decorator and instructor, and was Cake Decorating Instructor of the Year Worldwide Developmental Accounts in 2000 for Wilton Industries. Karen has a number of published recipes and also holds a Bachelors Degree in Journalism from Pepperdine University. She just completed work on a recipe and menu project for the newly opened Bazaar dining concept by Chef Jose Andres' of Jaleo, Washington, DC, including all restaurants in the new SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. Karen served as a personal chef to the British Ambassador in Oslo, Norway, where she also worked on recipe development, testing and a cookbook. She has lived in France, Norway, Germany, Switzerland, Africa and Asia, and traveled extensively throughout the world, sampling all types of cuisine. Karen is a member of Les Dames d'Escoffier and well as Women Chefs and Restaurateurs professional organizations. A recipe of Karen's is included in the James Beard Award Finalist Cookbook, "Cooking with Les Dames d'Escoffier". Karen speaks French, Spanish, Norwegian and German. She has also worked for the National Restaurant Association.