Claud Mann

While you may recognize Claud Mann as the chef-host of Dinner & A Movie, you may not know that prior to co-creating and starring on the show Rolling Stone Magazine named One of the 100 reasons to watch TV, Mann invested more two decades cooking honest-to-goodness food without the dubious benefit of shameless recipe titles like "Two Hot Peppers on the Lamb" (inspired by Thelma & Louise), "Cant go to School - I Falafel" (Ferris Buellers Day Off) or "Whats Under Your Skirt Steak" (Tootsie).

Graduating 1st in his class from the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, Claud spent over 20 years cooking his way up and down the California coast, Mexico, South America and Asia. In addition to his tenure on Dinner & A Movie, Mann has worked extensively on-camera on programs as diverse as The Today Show, CNN, and Southern Living Presents as series host and co-writer; he has also worked as in-house food expert for numerous morning shows and has even been featured on To Tell the Truth.

Mann's original recipes, essays or humor have been featured in a host of national publications including Cooking Light, Food and Wine, USA Today, TV Guide, Daily News, Washington Post, The New York Times, Sunset Magazine and many others. He is co-publisher of Edible Ojai and Ventura County, an IACP Award of Excellence winner and Saveur top 100 selection. Claud is the also the recipient of Edible Communities 2009 Eddy award for best humorous editorial. His Promax award winning, Dinner & A Movie Cookbook is currently in its 3rd printing.

Favorite non-profit endeavors include Arts Fighting Cancer, Project Open Hand, Ventura Countys Food for Thought Healthy Schools Project (of which is also a founding board member), Share Our Strength (as a member of The Calphalon Culinary Team), L.A. Food Banks chefs council, and San Franciscos infamous Eat the Rich Catering, which simply never made a penny. When not at home on the range-top, Mann keeps busy as managing partner of Temple Spice Organics, LLC and as vice-president of Mechuda Music, an independent record label he co-founded with his wife, Grammy nominated vocalist Perla Batalla. They live in Ojai, CA with their 16-year-old daughter, Eva and are currently in post production on Perlas 7th CD release, Gracias a la Vida, a tribute to Argentine legend, Mercedes Sosa.