Nicole Routhier is the author of The Foods of Vietnam and Cooking Under Wraps. The Foods of Vietnam was awarded Cookbook-of-the-Year in 1990 by both the James Beard Awards and the IACP Julia Child Cookbook Awards. Born in Vietnam to a Vietnamese mother and a French father, Nicole lived in Southeast Asia and Europe before coming to America in 1979. She studied cooking at the prestigious Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, and graduated in 1985. Currently, Nicole runs her own successful restaurant consulting business, teaches at Peter Kump's School of Culinary Arts and at The New School in New York City.