Youre only twenty-five, yet already the picture of a high-powered young executive. Youre the well-paid General Manager of a four-star Baltimore hotel, where part of your job is hosting celebrities such as Shirley MacClaine, Ron Howard, Carrie Fisher, Whoopi Goldberg, and Harrison Ford. You make major decisions every day, go to important meetings, and juggle the demands of a 24/7 business that changes as quickly as Wall Street. Fourteen-hour days are the norm.
Then Spring arrives, and with it, the famous cherry blossoms that line the streets of Baltimore and Washington. I knew it was time for a change when, after four years, I didnt notice the trees were in bloom, says Baltimore native Kerry Dunnington. It was then that I rewound the last few years and realized my life outside of work consisted mostly of sleep.
She immediately put in her notice and chose a stay-at-home career. It didnt take long before I discovered my attraction to all things food, Kerry says. I inherited clients from my sisters catering business and embarked on a business venture that has lasted more than a decade.
This Book Cooks grew out of a journal Kerry kept of her most successful recipes. Like a casting agent who casts the perfect person for a part, Kerry designs, creates, and develops food combinations into flavorful dishes for her clients. It took five years for Dunnington to test and retest her creations, but it didn't take long until friends, family, and catering clients started urging her to write a cookbook. That done, it took another four and a half years spent with agents and publishing houses to get her book published.
"I persevered because I really believed that I had something special," says Kerry. Since This Book Cooks was published, Dunnington has appeared at more than 100 book signings and cooking demonstrations, and was profiled by Maryland Public Television, National Public Radio, and several regional newspapers and magazines. Kerry is also a popular cooking demonstrator at Whole Foods Markets, and she loves to visit school children, teaching them delicious ways to add more fruits and vegetables to their diets. The result is thousands of copies of This Book Cooks sold so far, "and I'm going to keep working just as hard to promote it in the second year," Kerry says.
Kerry continues to run her catering business, and will soon complete This Book Cooks Too, a collection with more "daring pairings" for which she has become known. Curried Carrot Soup with Coconut-Covered Shrimp "Croutons,' Roasted Tomato Quiche, and a Mango and Cardamom Cake with Almond Streusel are part of the mix. The new book is slated to be released in 2007. "I want to put a stamp on determination, perseverance, believing in yourself, and getting a job done," says Dunnington. "I'd love it if my story convinced other people that with hard work and self-marketing, they can also achieve goals they thought were out of reach."
Kerry has been profiled by Maryland Public Television, on National
Public Radio, in regional newspapers and magazines, and Baltimore SmartWoman named Kerry "Smart Woman of the Month." Dunnington is founder and president of the Baltimore Cooking Club. She is a member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, Chesapeake Sustainable Business Alliance, Slow Food USA, and the National Association of Baby Boomer Women. Kerry sits on the board of the Maryland Writer's Association and writes for Hotel Food & Beverage Executive magazine. Her food column, "Cooking with Kerry" appears bi-weekly in the Examiner's Healthy Life section of the Baltimore, Washington, DC and San Francisco editions. Kerry also writes food columns for Baltimore SmartWoman , ("New Bites") and for baltimore eats, ("The Reason for the Season"). In 2008 Kerry was appointed to the board of the American Institute of Wine and Food (AIWF).
Kerry Dunnington is available for media appearances, interviews, speeches, and cooking demonstrations. She also writes food features for print.
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