"I'm not all that French," says award-winning illustrator, Pierre Lamielle. "I just fake it to sound cool."

Raised in North Vancouver, BC, Pierre completed the graphic design and illustration program at Capilano College. Shortly after graduation, he landed a gig at the Vancouver Sun as a feature designer. He worked for both the Vancouver Sun and the Province newspapers before moving to Calgary where he scored a sweet side-gig writing a sporadic food column for the Calgary Herald's Swerve magazine. The column combined Pierre's knack for offbeat writing and irreverent illustrations-and great recipes. The success of his column inspired him to pitch the idea for a full-length cookbook, but with the pitch rejected, Pierre went on to enroll in the French Culinary Institute in New York City. After finishing that, Pierre returned to Canada and again pitched the book, this time successfully landing a deal with Whitecap.

You can read about Pierre's adventures as a cookbook author in his Making Kitchen Scraps blog. He also blogs and shares recipes and illustrations at http://kitchenscraps.wordpress.com/.