Former Cook’s Illustrated editor Raquel Pelzel is a freelance cookbook author and food writer. Her first solo cookbook project, New Flavors for Dessert, part of a Williams-Sonoma’s cookbook series, was released in November 2008 by Oxmoor House and features forty-four of Pelzel’s original recipes. Two Dudes, One Pan (Clarkson Potter, 2008), a cookbook she collaborated on with Food + Wine “Best New Chefs” Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo has received widespread acclaim, including having been featured in The New York Times’ annual cookbook roundup, on National Public Radio as one of their top ten cookbooks of the year, and in the LA Times’ Cookbook Watch column, which described it as one of six cookbooks in fall 2008’s “dazzling cookbook lineup.”

American Masala (Clarkson Potter, 2007), a cookbook Pelzel authored with chef Suvir Saran, was included in The New York Times’ cookbook roundup for 2007; called one of the “top ten culinary books of 2007” by the editors of Martha Stewart Living magazine; “one of the best cookbooks of 2007” by epicurious.com; and named “one of the best new food books” by the New York Daily News. Pelzel collaborated on Simply Delicioso (Clarkson Potter, 2008) with Food Network talent Ingrid Hoffman which debuted at the number-one slot for the Latin and Spanish categories on Amazon.com; contributed 70 original recipes and text to the James Beard Award winning cookbook, The Quick Recipe (Boston Common Press, 2003); and wrote the IACP nominated Food Network cookbook Making It Easy (Meredith 2004).

Upcoming cookbooks being released in November include DamGoodSweet (Taunton Press) a New Orleans dessert cookbook Pelzel wrote with pastry chef David Guas and Dollars to Donuts (Rodale), a budget-driven cookbook written with Oklahoma restaurateur Dawn Welch. Pelzel is currently working on two cookbooks with chef Suvir Saran: Masala Farm (Chronicle, 2011) and The Country Cooking of India (Chronicle, 2012).

In addition to writing cookbooks, Pelzel’s is a special issues editor for Fine Cooking Magazine, and her recipes and articles about food and travel have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Saveur, Cook's Illustrated, Edible Brooklyn, Edible Manhattan, Prevention, Country Home, Country Living, Everyday Food, The Robb Report, Intermezzo, and in Whole Foods Markets’ in-store materials. She has written restaurant reviews for New York Magazine's website and Time Out New York guidebooks and was featured in The Hedonist’s Guide to Eat New York (Hg2, 2008).

Pelzel studied the culinary arts on a professional level at the School of Natural Cookery in Boulder, Colorado and Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island. She worked in the kitchens of some of Boston's most highly regarded bakeries and restaurants including Barbara Lynch's No. 9 Park. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and son.