Patricia Mendez is the author of Easy Entertaining for Beginners, a multiple award winning book, including the 2008 Silver Recipient of the Mom’s Choice Award. She has catered and coordinated special events in the Los Angeles area since the early 1990s and now teaches “Easy Entertaining for Beginners,” a cooking class for novice hosts and hostesses in Torrance, California. Patricia is a public speaker and has written articles for an array of print magazines and Internet sites. She has made appearances as a guest chef on Community Cooking, a local Torrance cable show, and also writes frequent “Entertaining on a Budget” columns for TheBudgetChef.com. Patricia is a member of the Independent Book Publisher Association (IBPA) and The Publisher Association of Los Angeles (PALA).