A visit with Patricia Rain, the Vanilla Queen and a look at the future fate of our favorite flavors.
Patricia Rain is an author, educator, culinary historian, and owner of The Vanilla Company, a socially conscious, product-driven information and education site dedicated to the promotion of pure, natural vanilla, and the support of vanilla farmers worldwide. The Vanilla Cookbook (Celestial Arts, 1986) established her as an authority on this exotic rainforest product. She has continued to do research on the uses of vanilla in a diverse variety of applications: as a flavor in both sweet and savory foods; as a medicinal; as a fragrance; and in aromatherapy. The Vanilla Chef (Vanilla Queen Press, 2002) is a companion book to the Internet business. Vanilla: The Cultural History of The World’s Favorite Flavor and Fragrance (Tarcher, a member of the US Penguin Group, 2004) is her most recent book.
Will there be vanilla, chocolate, and coffee in three decades? What can we do about the threats to the ecosystems and communities where these precious commodities grow? https://vanillaqueen.com/