Donna Leahy is a wine expert and professional chef with over 25 years experience in the culinary arts and wine industry. She was the Wine Director of the #1 Wine Shop in Collier County, Naples FL, doubling sales to over $3,000,000 in under 3 years.  As the wine sales manager, she built an email subscriber list from 1 to over 5,000 subscribers and published bi-weekly wine newsletters that forwarded to thousands more, generating increasing annual revenues. She is recognized as a leading authority on wine by both customers and distributors in the Southern Florida market.

 

As a cookbook author, she writes on a variety of topics with an emphasis on cooking delicious food and pairing it with wine. She is the former award winning chef/owner of a fine dining restaurant and country inn, described as "A couple of acres of bliss" by the LA Times and rated one of the top 10 inns in the country. Chef Leahy has appeared on the Today Show, CBS Early Show and the Food Network.  Her inn and cuisine have been featured in USA Today, Gourmet, Country Home, Fine Cooking, Country Living and many national publications.

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She is the author of Recipe for a Country Inn (Harper Collins), Morning Glories (Rizzoli) and a series of Breakfast Cookbooks (Food Arts Fusion). She is also the author of Wisdom of the Plain Folk (Viking Penguin), a photographic essay of Pennsylvania's Amish society. She's twice been a featured chef at the James Beard Foundation in NYC. Chef Leahy was described as the "best self-taught chef I've seen" by the food reviewer of the Philadelphia Inquirer.  She is certified by the Wine and Spirits Education Trust.

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She is available as a wine consultant, recipe developer, food stylist, artisan cheese and menu consultant. She is actively consulting in the culinary and wine industries in the Miiami and Coral Gables FL communities as well as nationally.

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Donna Leahy graduated with. B.A. in Communications and is a former video writer/producer.