Paula Wynne Stephens Lambert (born July 5, 1943, in

Santa Maria, California Santa Maria (Spanish for "St. Mary") is a city near the Central Coast of California in northern Santa Barbara County. It is approximately northwest of Santa Barbara and northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Its population was 109,707 at the 202 ...

) is an American

artisanal An artisan (from french: artisan, it, artigiano) is a skilled craft worker who makes or creates material objects partly or entirely by hand. These objects may be functional or strictly decorative, for example furniture, decorative art ...

cheesemaker Cheesemaking (or caseiculture) is the craft of making cheese. The production of cheese, like many other food preservation processes, allows the nutritional and economic value of a food material, in this case milk, to be preserved in concentrat ...

, author and teacher. Lambert grew up in

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. Accord ...

and spent some time as a college student in

Perugia Perugia (, , ; lat, Perusia) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber, and of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and pa ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

studying art history. After college, she returned to Italy to live for a time and enjoyed the fresh

mozzarella Mozzarella (, ; nap, muzzarella ) is a southern Italian cheese traditionally made from Italian buffalo's milk by the pasta filata method. Fresh mozzarella is generally white but when seasoned it turns to a light yellow depending on the anim ...

available there. In 1982, she founded the Mozzarella Company in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

. She is the author of two books on cheese and teaches cooking classes.

Accolades

Lambert was listed in ''Who's Who in Food and Wine in Texas'' in 1988 and received the Roundtable for Women in Foodservice's Pacesetter Award in 1992. In 1998, she was listed in the James Beard Foundation's ''Who's Who in Food and Beverage in America''. In 2005, she received the Career Achievement Award from

Mary Baldwin College Mary Baldwin University (MBU, formerly Mary Baldwin College) is a private university in Staunton, Virginia. It was founded in 1842 as Augusta Female Seminary. Today, Mary Baldwin University is home to the Mary Baldwin College for Women, a resid ...

in Staunton, Virginia. In 2022,

Les Dames d'Escoffier Les Dames d'Escoffier is an American society of professional women involved in the food, fine beverage, and hospitality industries. History Les Dames d'Escoffier is a leadership culinary organization composed of women who have not only achieved su ...

recognized Lambert with the Grande Dame Lifetime Achievement Award for extraordinary lifetime contributions within the food, beverage and hospitality industries.

Bibliography

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References

External links

Mozzarella Company official site
1943 births Living people American chefs American food writers Mary Baldwin University alumni People from Santa Maria, California Businesspeople from Texas Writers from Texas {{US-business-bio-1940s-stub 20th-century American businesspeople