About

© Junenoire Mitchell

Salut! Thank you for stopping by!

My name is Mary Rosch, better known as The Culinary Librarian. My love affair with food began, as it does for many, when I was little. Growing up I was blessed with an amazing cook for a mother who also has a knack for baking and decorating cakes and cookies as good as any major bakery (yes even today with the infinite number of them popping up!). Being the youngest I had the privilege of getting a lot of my mom’s undivided attention as a child. I was a readily available sous chef to her, especially when it came to baking. More than anything I am my mother’s daughter and since starting The Culinary Librarian I see it more and more each day.

When my mother is in the kitchen, she has no fear (not even knives, which she always says a little nick to the finger makes the meal taste better). Proudly I like to think that I, too, am fearless when it comes to the kitchen. I’m not intimidated by new recipes and view something difficult as a challenge to succeed at, not a chance to fail (my macaron trials prove this). Every day when I whip up dinner for myself, with or without a recipe, I channel my mother’s innate sense of cooking; knowing what will work, easily fixing what didn’t. A lot of people stay out of the kitchen because of a fear of failure, but food is very forgiving and it is difficult to harm anything beyond repair. So this lifelong love of food, combined with my affections for reading, research and writing came together in the form of a blog a couple years ago.

After graduating with a degree in English and French (as you may know from reading, I spent a semester in Paris) I moved down to NYC for my first job, taking the first position I was offered. Graduating smack-dab the midst of serious economic hardship that was only to get worse before it got better, I didn’t take the time to wait for the “right” first job and instead chose to take the job that would pay the student loans that would start rolling in after Christmas (six months from May is really bad timing student loan people, don’t you think?). The best part about my first job is that it has brought me to Manhattan—one of the epicenters of the culinary realm. In New York you can get any kind of cuisine, pretty much 24/7-- plus infinite opportunities to attend food-centric events; book readings/signings, cooking demonstrations, tastings, full-on food festivals. New York is a “foodie's” delight.

Having lived in New York a few months I realized that I wanted to be a part of the culinary scene and I thought to myself, how can I make that happen? I didn’t attend culinary school, I didn’t have a degree in Food Studies or Gastronomy from my undergrad years, and I didn’t know anyone who could get me “in” easily at a good food job. Where to start? Naturally—a blog. Having spent my four years at college reading, discussing and writing about books and literature of all sorts (even some about food- like The Omnivore’s Dilemma) with classmates and professors I was craving intellectual satisfaction and to have that zest for what I was doing back in my life. My love for books and food led me to research possible culinary careers. After a little Googling, I came across Irena Chalmers book Food Jobs. One of the jobs Chalmers discusses is the culinary librarian. Many times throughout college I considered going to library school, especially after working in my school’s academic library. Also, I had worked on a project for my Ecocritisim course where I looked back at cookbooks in the Genesee Valley in our library, researching patterns for a paper. That paper became my first post on The Culinary Librarian. The idea of a librarian whose expertise is in cookbooks and literature on all things food related was inescapably appealing. Since I couldn’t afford to begin any further post-secondary education I started blogging and took the career inspiration from Chalmers’ book as my title and theme. A few months after starting the Culinary Librarian, I began blossoming into the epicurean scene and making a place for myself in the blogosphere, Twitterverse, and on Facebook.

So here I am. Reading, writing, experiencing and above all sharing with you! I hope you like what you see now and continue to like anything that may come about in the future. 


Feel free to email me anytime! theculinarylibrarian[at]gmail[dot]com
Tweet me: @culinarylibrari
Like The CL on Facebook: The Culinary Librarian