Shirley Corriher Accomplishments

Shirley at a young age started studying as a research biochemist at Vanderbilt Medical School, then a Chemistry major and some English and writing classes at Vanderbilt University. She then started out cooking for 140 teenage boys and teachers at a boarding school for eleven years with her then husband. After that time, she filed for divorce and had to support 3 small children by washing dishes for the $2 minimum wage out of desperation. She then worked her way up to teaching classic French cuisine (Corriher, early 2000). Today she is a major role in scientific approaches to traditional recipes. She has a Hectic and busy life, but as she quotes Gordon Jump: If you like what you are doing, you will never work a day in your life. She has spoken at a lot of conventions—the International Association of Culinary Professionals, the Smithsonian, AAAS, American Dietetic Association, the American Chemical Society and more (Corriher, early 2000). As a reward for her hard work, dedication, and the result of a hectic life of seminars and general know-how distribution, like magazines and newspapers she has received several awards for her candor of kitchen science, such as: CookWise, The Hows and Whys of Successful Cooking

Although there are more than 4,000 known flavonoids which are all good for you, most previous research focused on dietary intake of only five flavonoids. Current research is breaking down the family of procyanidin flavonoids into monomers (those containing one unit) and oligomers (those containing two, three or more units). The exciting news is: as oligomers get bigger their ability to prevent LDL (the bad cholesterol) oxidation increases and luckily, our beloved chocolate contains plenty of these big, super-good-for-you compounds. (Corriher S. ,