Paulette Mitchell, the author of 13 cookbooks, is known internationally for quick-to-prepare recipes with gourmet flair. Paulette’s most recently published book is The Complete 15-Minute Gourmet: Creative Cuisine Made Fast and Fresh, which features 350 delicious dishes from around the world. Several of Paulette’s cookbooks have received Gourmand World Media Awards. As a result of her success as an author, freelance writer, television personality, and spokesperson, Paulette has been a lecturer and culinary presenter on cruise ships since 1998.

As a photographer who specializes in travel images, Paulette’s work documents her globe-trotting to 127 countries, where she explores off-the-beaten paths to capture the intrinsic allure of destinations. Among her favorite subjects are enigmatic faces of people as they experience life. On cruise ships, Paulette offers PowerPoint slideshow presentations on travel photography, which offer helpful tips for all levels of photographers in her audiences.

Paulette also presents PowerPoint lectures, using her own photos, about colorful food markets around the world. These programs also include highlights of destinations and insights into the cultures and customs.

Also related to her culinary career, Paulette is a popular guest chef/culinary lecturer on cruise ships around the world. She conducts cooking demonstrations and classes featuring the cuisines of the ports. These programs focus on distinctive ingredients and simple techniques. On some voyages, she also creates Signature Menus for the main and specialty dining rooms.

Paulette is the producer of Telly Award-winning travel and culinary videos. Her subjects include Food Markets of the World and educational videos showing the ingredients and cooking techniques of international cuisines. She is a food and travel writer for numerous websites, magazines, and other publications. As a media spokesperson, Paulette shares her recipes and culinary tips on national television shows. She also a cooking instructor.

Paulette entertains and educates her audiences by sharing travel wisdom acquired through her extensive international journeys, which she says are her greatest source of inspiration.

Click here to visit Paulette's website >> www.paulettemitchell.com

Street Photography: Chance Encounters & Observations in Public Places
The first in a series of travel photography talks and workshops with well-known author, chef, photographer, and world traveler Paulette Mitchell.
Street photography documents life, in shots of buildings, objects, animals, and people. Capture the commonplace and the unusual. Seize the reality of spontaneous moments. Tell stories with your photos. Prompt questions. Illustrate a new way of seeing the world around you. It’s all about the art of observation, which will improve your photos and also enrich your travel experiences.

Travel Photography: Enhanced Skills for Better Composition
Paulette Mitchell offers easy methods for turning snapshots into artistically crafted images. The second in her series of entertaining and educational travel photography presentations and workshops that will improve your skills with any camera or phone as you view Paulette’s own inspiring photos from around the world. Learn how to position yourself as the photographer, ways to take advantage of facets such as leading lines and repeating patterns, how lighting can transform a scene from mundane to magical, and more.

Travel Photography: Capture Emotions in People
Learn when to press the shutter to reflect emotion in your photographs of people. Strategies for capturing the personal spirit of cultures. How to ask permission. How to make strangers comfortable as the subjects of your pictures. How to engage locals on a more personal level. We all enjoy photos of buildings and famous places, but it’s the people who make a place come to life.

Travel Photography: Reveal Ambience in Destinations
Whether taking photos with an elaborate or point-and-shoot camera, a cell phone or an iPad, it’s easy for everyone to create more than just simple snapshots. Reveal beauty and distinctive characteristics. And think about engaging your five senses, which can apply to your pictures when photographing sophisticated cities, as well as humble destinations. Paulette’s valuable tips will make your travel photography more alluring and rewarding.

Travel Photography Workshops
Paulette can also offer a series of interactive photography workshops for the following subjects:
• Go Beyond the Basics of Travel Photography: Make use of color, shadows, and reflections in images that express time and place, as well as your creativity. Confidence to shoot photos in unique situations will be an asset to your travels offering eye-opening possibilities.
• Conquer Challenges of Travel Photography
Become adept with backlighting, dim museum lights, and shooting photos from tour bus windows, as well as many unexpected photography challenges we face while traveling. Turn the hurdles into advantages to skillfully record your travel memories and take your images from ordinary to remarkable.
• The Secrets of Being Photogenic
Relax. Express your unique personality using simple techniques for looking great in every travel photo. Consider your position, your best side, and how to be pleased with the way you look. Pick up Paulette’s handout listing helpful tips for both subjects and their photographers. There will also be time to discuss your questions.
• An Informal Gathering for Travel Pictures and Stories
Let’s share our favorite photos for discussion and positive critique among fellow photo enthusiasts. Always a fun and entertaining event.
(Guests will submit photos in advance for the creation of a PowerPoint program.)

France: Customs & Cuisine (2-part presentation)
Paulette Mitchell shows life in France through photos indicating that the French love all that is aesthetically pleasing to the eye, including architecture, art, and fashion. This joie de vivre extends to spending a great deal of time thinking and talking about food. The passion is clearly seen in the open-air markets of Paris, Nice, and Marseilles. Learn the difference between a boulangerie and a patisserie. And also how to discriminate the categories of bistro, brasserie, and restaurant. Get advice on how to best experience the cafés, which are an important party of French social life.

Italy: Customs & Cuisine
Italy offers a feast for the senses, and cooking is very close to the heart of Italians. See the Rialto Market in Venice as barges arrive laden with produce, and Campo di Fiori in Rome where stacked crates are filled with garden-fresh traditional ingredients. Learn about limoncello, which is made from Sorrento lemons, and how balsamic vinegar is aged. View the sophisticated Mercato Centrale in Florence and learn how important quality is to the Italians.

Spain: Customs & Cuisine
Spain is known for fine wine and beautiful foods, which are closely tied to Spanish culture. Join Paulette to view a vivid collection of city and market photos from Cadiz, Cartagena, and Mercat La Boqueria in Barcelona. Learn about distinctive Spanish ingredients, which are beautifully displayed for those preparing to make traditional family meals. Observe the difference between tapas and pintxos. And view Semana Santa, the most important religious celebration of the year in Spain.

China: Customs & Cuisine
Paulette offers a photo presentation on densely populated Chinese cities, where modern life contrasts with timeless traditions. The smoke of incense, fortune tellers, food offerings, and red ribbons all are tied to pure intentions and seeking good fortune. Learn about tai chi and natural remedies, as well as the importance of birds. The production of tea and its and serving are an art.
See the food markets where quality is often indicated by the food being alive, and how this is so important that some Chinese housewives shop twice daily for meals that are appreciated not only for fine flavors but also for their health-promoting properties

India: Customs, Culture, & Foods (2-part presentation)
India assaults the senses with a frenzy of action, a kaleidoscope of colors, and a rush of aromas. Get off the beaten path with Paulette as she shows her photos and shares stories about the customs and foods of colorful India. Learn tips and strategies for embracing the cultural differences.
- Presentation 1: Explore the streets of Mumbai, where barbers offer shaves on the streets, street vendors sell everything under the sun, and street food entices the locals with bold aromas. Cows wander freely, and people get around on motorcycles, in tuk-tuks, in a sea of taxicabs. Those who walk often have giant loads atop their heads. Dabbawallas deliver lunches in tiffins. The flower market is a colorful and aromatic place to visit. See the public laundry called Dhobi Ghat and visit Dharavi, one of the most densely populated areas on earth.
- Presentation 2: Indian cuisine is heavily influenced by religious and cultural choices and traditions. Popular dishes are well known for a vibrant and vast use of spices, herbs, vegetables, and fruits. Learn about the distinctive ingredients while viewing Crawford Market and the Dadar Wholesale Market in Mumbai, as well fish markets, small neighborhood markets, and the Lalbaug Spice Market, where Indian housewives bring their own masala recipes for the ingredients to be toasted, roasted, and blended.

Central and South America: Food Markets & More
Central and South American food is wholesome and fresh. There's ocean-fresh seafood, juicy tropical fruits, colorful vegetables, aromatic coffee, and distinctive teas. Join Paulette via her photos as she wanders through food market and a banana market. See giant tunas being unloaded in Manta, Ecuador, the “tuna capital of the world.” In the countryside, visit a coffee plantation and a spice plantation, the source of spices enjoyed around the world. See how cacao is grown and processed. Also, learn about local customs, including drinking maté tea and enjoying the delicious and abundant food at parillas.

Central America, Mexico, & Cuba: Food Markets & More
Discover the elements that make these vibrant cultures and wholesome, fresh cuisines so appealing

East Africa: Food Markets & More
Join Paulette for a visit to food markets in East Africa where vendors sell distinctive ingredients at humble stands sheltered from the sun beneath well-used umbrellas and at crowded casbahs. You’ll see fruits such as jackfruit, tree tomatoes Zanzibar apples, rambutan, soursop, and baobab. You can almost smell the aroma of spices, including peppercorns, cinnamon, and cloves, as well as vanilla beans that are grown in lush, tropical surroundings. Accompanying her beautiful photos, Paulette will also offer travel tips for visiting these markets, where it’s often advisable to have a knowledgeable guide.

Customs & Cuisines of the World (2-part presentation)
Note: This program is ideal for a world cruise. The countries discussed can be customized to fit a specific itinerary.
Food markets where cooks mingle are a cornucopia of diversity and destinations with many surprises. Paulette Mitchell, the author of 14 cookbooks and world traveler, shares her colorful photos and tales from markets around the world. Whether humble or sophisticated, life happens at the markets, which are also the source of the makings of distinctive cuisines. Markets are a foodlover’s fantasy.
• Presentation 1: South America, Mexico, the South Pacific, Indonesia, Malaysia, and many parts of Asia, where food is not only sustenance but also a way of life. These are particularly fascinating destinations, particularly if you plan ahead with knowledge of unique customs.
• Presentation 2: Singapore, Oman, Jordan, Egypt, and and many cities in India, East Africa, and Europe. A feast for the senses, as well as many surprises in the diverse customs.

The Fashion and Function of Clothing Worn Around the World
Note: This program is ideal for a world cruise. The countries discussed can be customized to fit a specific itinerary.
Clothing is an element of cultural diversity that adds visual appeal and vibrant colors to the places we travel. In some parts of the world, religion shapes how people dress. In other areas, the focus might be costumes for dance. Some clothing is intended to conceal the human form, and in other locations typical outfits may enhance female and male shapes. Design elements may be more than decorative as many clothing elements deliver messages. Join Paulette to take a look at how the world dresses for both fashion and sometimes for surprising function.

Tropical Fruits
We love the aromas and the flavors. Learn why these fruits are unique and why produce grown in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world possesses special properties. Mangos, for example, are the most widely consumed fruit in the world. And they are available in hundreds of varieties. Coffee cherries and chilies are fruits, too.
(This presentation can be paired with a tropical fruit tasting.

Behind the Scenes with a Cookbook Author
Do you ever wonder how recipes are developed? Is the food in the photos real? How long is the publication process for a book? What are the upcoming culinary trends? How are printed books converted into EBooks? For the answers to these questions and more, join Paulette for a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of a cookbook. She will also answer general questions about publishing books of any kind.

Paulette Mitchell has been lecturing on luxury cruise ships around the world since 1998. Cruise lines include Royal Viking, Cunard, Seabourn, Regent, Oceania, Holland America, and Viking Ocean Cruises.

Itineraries have taken her to 127 countries as of 1/18. Areas include the Pacific (including Australia, New Zealand, French Polynesia, etc), North America, South America, Panama Canal, Caribbean, the Atlantic, Europe and the Mediterranean, Africa, Midddle East, Indian Ocean, and Asia.

Paulette can offer culinary presentations for all regions of the world. Her PowerPoint slideshows, as noted in the list of Talks, feature solely her own photos, and the lectures refer to personal experiences from international travel, as well as details acquired thorough and conscientious research.

Paulette has a large collection of her own professional-quality photos, as well as a wealth of experiences, from all over the world and is willing to create presentations for specific itineraries.

In addition to PowerPoint lectures, I often also offer culinary demonstrations featuring the cuisines of the ports. I have a very large repertoire of presentations, including most regions of the world. I usually begin with a demonstration featuring indigenous herbs, spices, and aromatic flavorings that are distinctive of the regional cuisines. And I follow with programs showing primary ingredients and techniques.
Many of the recipes that I demonstrate come from my cookbook series titled "The 15-Minute Gourmet," so the dishes are quick and easy to prepare. As the author of 13 cookbooks, my recipes are well written, simple to follow, and in home-preparation-size yields, as my goal is to always demonstrate dishes that the guests will enjoy preparing when they return home.
An example of a cooking demonstration series:
1 - Mediterranean Herbs, Spices, and Aromatic Flavorings
2 - Mediterranean Soups
3 - Mediterranean Salads
4 - Spanish Tapas: Big Flavors on Little Plates
5 - Mediterranean Menu for Easy Entertaining

Additional PowerPoint presentations in progress:
Thailand: Food Markets & More
Vietnam: Food Markets & More
Tropical Fruits - This program is to be paired with a tropical fruit tasting.

The following recent Cruise History has been recorded for this candidate.