Animated, sassy, and charming are word often used to
describe Angela Shelf Madearis, aka “the Kitchen Diva!”
I was first introduced to Angela on an episode of Throw down with Bobby Flay. Iron Chef
Bobby Flay challenged “the Kitchen Diva!” to a competition featuring Jerk
Chicken. Friendly barbs and lots of trash talking peppered the conversation as
Bobby and Angela prepared their dishes. The close contest ended with a victory
for Angela, cloaked in her red boa while she jovially consoled Bobby on his
loss.
During the show, I learned that Angela engaged in a
number of diverse projects, i.e., writing cookbooks and children’s books while
hosting radio and television shows. I decided to learn more about this dynamic
personality. Let’s get to know Angela “On the Record”.
Angela was born on November 16, 1956, in Hampton,
Virginia. In 1975, she married Michael Rene Medearis, and moved to Austin,
Texas. She attended Southwest Texas State University, has one daughter, Deanna,
and one grandchild, Anysa.
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| Angela and Bobby Flay's Throwdown |
Angela’s
career as an author began in 1987, the day she was fired from her job as a
legal secretary. She decided to pursue her dream of writing so that she could
be a stay-at-home mother. After four long years, hundreds of painful rejection
letters, and numerous unpublished manuscripts, Angela decided to stop sending
her work to New York publishers and submitted her manuscript to a small,
regional publisher in her hometown, Austin, Texas.
Her husband, Michael, worked full-time and part-time
to support her dreams and assisted her on her road trips to school districts
around Texas to promote her book a time he refers to as “Driving Ms. Angela”.
They sold more than 10,000 copies of Picking
Peas for a Penny at schools, autograph-signings, and book conferences. The
appearances helped Angela hone her skills as a storyteller and she has been
named one of the “Best Storyteller’s in the World” by Storytelling World
Magazine.
Angela founded Book Boosters, Inc. in 1988, a
non-profit, grant supported, multi-cultural reading program tutoring and
teaching literacy to grade school children. According
to Ms. Medearis, "Picture books are a child's first step into a lifetime
of reading. That is why I feel that my job is important. I want to write in
such an interesting and exciting way that the memory of reading my book, and
the information I've related about a particular event, will linger with a young
reader for a lifetime." She has
gone on to publish dozens of children’s books about African-Americans with real
life themes, as well as history books geared towards young readers, such as Come
This Far to Freedom (1993), and brief biographies of Coretta Scott King and
Ida B. Wells.
Medearis
routinely visits schools and performs storytelling, has produced Children’s
Radio Bookmobile for the University of Texas at Austin (a brief weekly program
featuring multi-ethnic children’s literature), and has curated African-American
exhibits for the George Washington Carver Museum in Austin. Additionally, Mr.
and Ms. Medearis act as consultants and writers for Scott Foresman, Scholastic,
and Macmillan publishers, creating or contributing textbooks and children’s
books. Among many other awards, Angela won the first ever Teddy, a
children’s-book award presented by Laura Bush (Poppa’s New Pants, 1996).
In 1997, Texas Monthly magazine featured Angela and described her as the
best-selling children’s book author in Texas, with over 1.5 million copies of
works in print. "I write the kind of books I always longed to find in the
library when I was a child. Every child needs to find a reflection of him or
herself when looking for a book in the library or bookstore."
Book Boosters, Inc. is also the sponsoring organization for The Kitchen Diva! Television
and radio shows, as well as several educational children's television shows. Book
Boosters, Inc. has as part of its mission to educate a diverse
population on healthy living and to introduce the concept of organic,
all-natural eating habits to viewers nationwide.
Angela has written four best selling cookbooks,
including Ideas for Entertaining from
the African American
Kitchen (Dutton 1997) and
The Ethnic Vegetarian (Rodale Press, 2004), both of which received wonderful reviews in The
New York Times and Bon Appetit Magazine. She is one of
the few African-American women to own her own
multimedia production company.
Here's how Angela explains her success:
"I always say that I made two life-changing decisions ..., I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior and I married my sweet husband. Those decisions have made me The Kitchen Diva! I am today. I call myself a DIVA because I am Divinely Inspired Victorious and Accomplished through Christ."
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