Barbara Pool Fenzl

Barbara Fenzl wears many hats on the American culinary stage.  She is the owner of Les Gourmettes Cooking School in Phoenix, established in 1983, and teaches cooking there as well as around the United States and at Rancho La Puerta in Mexico. The television host of the 13-week PBS series, “Savor the Southwest,” which was shown in 90 cities in 1999, she is the host of all of Eight’s (KAET) cooking-related pledge drives and a regular guest on “Your Life Arizona,” a local morning television show.  She has organized and led culinary trips to France, Greece, and India.

She is the author of Southwest the Beautiful Cookbook, Savor the Southwest, and Seasonal Southwest Cooking, the former food editor of Southwest Passages and Phoenix Home and Garden magazine, and was a frequent contributor to Bon Appétit magazine and other national publications.  

A leader in the culinary world, she was president of the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP), a benefactor and past board member of the American Institute of Wine and Food (AIWF), past president of the Arizona Chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier (LDEI), and a past member of the James Beard Foundation Restaurant Awards Committee.   She is still active in IACP and LDEI and serves as a judge for the Beard Awards.

An inductee in the Arizona Culinary Hall of Fame and recipient of the Greater Phoenix Chef’s Association Humanitarian of the Year, Ms. Fenzl has the distinction of having the Junior League of Phoenix’s kitchen named after her and has been the honorary chairman of numerous fundraising events.  She received the Girl Scouts World of the Arts Award in 2002 and was named a 2003 Master of the Southwest by Phoenix Home and Garden Magazine.
She holds B.S. and M.A. degrees and has studied cooking at the Cordon Bleu in London and at Ecole LeNotre and Luberon College in France.