Award-winning cookbook author Linda J. Amendt is an accomplished and experienced baker and home canner. She has won nearly one thousand awards in state and county fair food competitions across the country, including more than seven hundred first-place blue ribbons and special awards for excellence for her exquisite creations. In addition to numerous Best of Show Awards, multiple blue ribbon Baked Goods Sweepstakes awards, and Preserved Foods Sweepstakes awards, she was also the Top Preserved Foods Competitor in the United States for two years and the Top Preserved Foods Competitor in California for five years.
Amendt officially retired from state and county fair food competitions once she began to write cookbooks. She serves as a judge, advisor, and sponsor for baked-goods and preserved-foods competitions and special food contests at state and county fairs. Sharing her knowledge and love of baking and canning, Amendt also presents insightful demonstrations at fairs, revealing her insider secrets on preparing the best entries and how to win those coveted blue ribbons. She was selected as a lifetime member of the inaugural class of the Sure-Jell Hall of Fame, which was established to honor the very best jam and jelly makers in the country.
Born and raised in Whittier, California, Amendt studied floral design and earned her associate of arts degree at Mt. San Antonio College in California. In addition to her work as a cookbook author, recipe developer, and competition judge, Amendt also has worked as a private courier, floral designer, and an office manager and administrative assistant. She volunteers as float decorator for the Tournament of Roses Parade, enjoys baking and home canning (of course), gardening, and counted cross stitching. A member of the Cordon d’Or - Gold Ribbon Academy of the Culinary Arts and the Authors Guild, she lives in Murrieta, California. |