Mark’s Profile

Mark Leslie, food blogger, culinarian, and author is a self-proclaimed “foodie” who loves to cook for anyone with an appetite, works across the country in professional theatre as a stage manager. *

Every year he vacations in Italy and lives to eat his way through every plate of pasta and cone of gelato placed before him. He shares those Italian experiences on his popular blog.

His adventure of living with an Italian family while learning to cook from Nonna, the grandmother, and learning the language from her daughter Alessandra, is the subject of his food memoir/cookbook Beyond the Pasta: Recipes, Language & Life with an Italian Family. (details)

A Chicago-area native and “Yankee” by birth, Mark has lived in Alabama for over 23 years, and celebrates the fact that he started life eating farina, progressed to grits, and finally arrived at polenta.

Buonissima!

*For TV/Radio appearances: View List

*For list of Publications/Blogs featuring Mark and “Beyond the Pasta”: View List

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* Mark’s theatrical credits include:

Great River Shakespeare Festival, Winona, MN: HENRY IV;PART 1, COMEDY OF ERRORS and LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST.

Opera Birmingham, Birmingham, AL: LE NOZZE DI FIGARO and AIDA.

The Arts Center of Coastal Carolina, Hilton Head, SC: DREAMGIRLS, CABARET and EVITA.

Denver Center Theatre Company, Denver, CO: WHITE CHRISTMAS, NOISES OFF, a reading of a new adaption of THE UNSINKABLE MOLLY BROWN directed by Kathleen Marshall and authored by Dick Scanlon.

Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Montgomery, AL: Resident stage manager on over 65 productions, including THE BIRD SANCTUARY starring Hayley Mills and Elizabeth Franz.

Actors Theatre of Louisville’s Humana Festival, Louisville, KY: D. BOONE by Marsha Norman.

Arizona Theatre Company, Tucson, AZ: AMADEUS, LOOT, and AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’ directed by Arthur Faria

Maine State Music Theatre, Brunswick, ME: PHANTOM, SOUTH PACIFIC, JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, LA CAGE AUX FOLLES, and the world premiere of CHAMBERLAIN.