ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sharon Montoya-Welsh spent her formative years in the California Bay Area and became active in the mid-'70s thriving culinary and wine tasting scene. Married in 1977, she and husband, Carlos, moved to the quaint historic village of Oysterville, located on Willapa Bay in Southwest Washington. It was there her love affair with oysters began and collaborated with New England transplant Marjorie Speare-Yerxa who resided bayside near the old Northern Oyster Co. cannery. With her urging and support, the author attended the famed James Beard Cooking School in Gearhart, Oregon in the early '80s after which work began on Oyster Cookery. During this period, she attended various culinary festivals winning numerous local Northwest cooking competitions, taught cooking classes, and became a local legend with her cooking show aired on KMUN radio out of Astoria, Oregon. Oyster Cookery  was first published in 1984 and received rave reviews from The Oregonian, The Seattle Times, as well as Bon Appetit and various other cooking magazines. She now divides her time between Seattle, WA and Punta Barco, Panama where oysters abound in their natural habitat.