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Donna Diegel - Donna Diegel

Donna Diegel is an experienced baker and published author with more than 25 years of experience in the food industry. Over her lifetime, she’s owned and operated a commercial catering business as well as wholesale and retail bakeries in both New Hampshire and Vermont, and she’s served as the pastry chef at a number of prestigious New England inns.

She has also pursued a career as a writer of natural cooking, self published two vegetarian cookbooks, taught healthful and vegan cooking classes throughout the country, and dabbled in organic produce farming. She's raised 4 children on her recipes, which have become family favorites now being passed down to the next generation.

“The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Vegan Baking”

Donna’s latest accomplishment has been to write “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Vegan Baking" published by the Penguin Publishing Group and Alpha Books in 2011. The book has over 160 recipes, and is available in either print or the Kindle version. Whether your interest in a vegan lifestyle is to save the animals, your health, or the environment, your dedication to veganism doesn’t have to include boring food.

From whole-grain yeast breads, to extra-creamy “cheesecakes,” and everything in between, this cookbook was designed to complete your culinary adventure into vegan living. All made with 100% animal-free products, “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Vegan Baking” will have you saying, “I can’t believe it’s vegan!”

Although she's not a "hard core" vegan or vegetarian—and has been known to pile on the butter in a number of sinfully-rich desserts—Donna's lifelong motto has always been, "Life is uncertain, eat dessert first." This motto also carries over into her vegan and vegetarian creations.

The Culinary Journey

Most of Donna's life has been one culinary adventure after another. Starting out in her grandmother's kitchen at the age of 6, she quickly became obsessed with food, and baking in particular. When she ran away from home with her husband to sail into the sunset on a 40-foot sailboat, she traded in her beloved 10-burner commercial stove and 30-quart mixer for a 3-burner galley stove - affectionately called her "Easy Bake Oven" - and a hand-held mixer. The transition from cooking commercially for 200 to dinner for 2 has been interesting to say the least, and it's truly amazing what can be produced in a small space. Her fellow dock mates love her and are the recipients of all her rejects and leftovers!

Donna's Passions

Donna's blog, Spatulas and Corkscrews, houses a collection of all kinds of recipes and cooking tips. Come visit and see what it's all about! She shares her expertise as the Baking & Desserts Feature Writer for her column on Suite101.com, and on several other food websites as the Providence Food Examiner and National Food Media Examiner. In addition, Donna dabbles in food photography and has had her yummy photos published on TasteSpotting, FoodGawker, and Photograzing.

Donna's interests include reviewing cookbooks and food magazines and, most of all, spending time in her galley kitchen. She enjoys tweaking recipes to make them healthy, but she's also well known among peers as a recipe mastermind who can dream up her own recipes on a whim.

Donna’s other passion is wine. Wine tastings, drinking wine, learning about wine, and writing wine reviews. This obsession with wine has earned her 2 certificates with Wine Spectator. She’s currently on the quest for the perfect Big, Red California Zinfandel.

Over many years, she’s done it all:

• Owner and operator of Schatzi's Bakery Cafe, NH.
• Schatzi's Wholesale Desserts selling to distributors in New England.
• Pastry chef for 4 posh country inns including Rabbit Hill Inn, Vermont and Sugar Hill Inn, NH.
• Owner and operator of Honeymoon Kitchens, a wholesale dessert company in Vermont.
• Chef and caterer for the Strong House Inn in Vermont.
• Commercial catering for hundreds and just as many wedding cakes!
• Organic produce farming
• Organic chicken farming
• Taught healthy and vegan cooking classes.
• Self-published 2 vegetarian cookbooks.
• Published author with Penguin Publishing and Alpha Books.
• Earned 2 certificates with Wine Spectator.
• Donna works for herself as a freelance writer for a variety of websites, including Food Examiner and as Feature Writer for Suite101’s Baking & Desserts column.

Donna’s Editor's Choice Awards:

• Rustic Pear and Plum Tart Recipe
• Coconut Cake Recipe & Buttercream Frosting
• Spice Cake Recipe & Penuche Frosting
• Pumpkin Pound Cake Recipe
• Buyer Beware: Gift Card Scam Alert

Some of Donna’s Accomplishments:

Suite101 chose Donna's Editor's Choice Award article, Rustic Pear and Plum Tart Recipe, for a series of Learning Modules (tutorials) on using good keywords and SEO.

• How to Use Keyword Phrases in Your Articles - Figure out how to write your article once you have selected the keyword phrases to target.
• Why Keywords Matter - Gain a better understanding of what keywords are and why you should care about them.

On July 30, 2009, CBS posted an article, Top 10 Recipes For National Cheesecake Day, linking to, and including a TV clip based on her article, Recipes: 10 Cheesecakes for National Cheesecake Day.

A Never-Ending Journey

Donna currently lives year round on her 40-foot sailboat in New England, where she cooks, bakes, photographs, and writes about all her culinary adventures.

When not cooking, baking or tasting wine, her interests are discovering new restaurants, sailing, and traveling anywhere she hasn’t been yet. She has a long bucket list of things to do before she dies and scratches off more and more each year. What a life!