Our Authors

Born in the Philippines, life cast Jacqueline Chio Lauri to 7 far-flung places, including England, where she now lives. Some of her most delicious childhood memories are strolls with her lola (grandmother) from the city’s panaderia (bakery) at the crack of dawn—she, munching warm, freshly-baked pandesal and Lola, regaling her with fascinating stories.

Jacqueline would like to see more books from diverse perspectives so ALL people could read about main characters like or different from themselves. Her first book is the highly acclaimed THE NEW FILIPINO KITCHEN: Stories and Recipes from around the Globe. Her second, WE COOK FILIPINO: Heart-Healthy Recipes and Inspiring Stories from 36 Filipino Food Personalities and Award-winning Chefs, won Best in the World at the 29th Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.

She is also a picture book writer represented by Sera Rivers at Speilburg Literary Agency.

Her first picture book, MAMI KING: How Ma Mon Luk Found Love, Riches, and a Perfect Bowl of Soup, published on April 2, 2024, is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection.

Jacqueline’s essays appear in anthologies, such as Chicken Soup for the Soul: Find Your Inner Strength. Her short memoir, “Good for One”, won the short memoir writing competition at WomensMemoirs.com and was published in the anthology Tales of Our Lives: Fork in the Road. The book won awards for anthologies at the New England, Los Angeles, and Great NorthWest Book Festivals.

Jacqueline has been featured on CNN, Well+Good, and NBC. Her work also appears on global media sites, such as Huffington Post and Epicurious.

She was one of the five young women professionals featured in Emirates Woman Magazine in a Special Report, “Why the Future is Female”. Her story in The New Filipino Kitchen recounts what it’s like to be a single Filipino female expat in an extremely male-dominated and couple-oriented society. In 2019, Metro Style named her one of the 20 (Filipino) Global Culinary Stars You Should Know. In collaboration with Dr. Youssef Roman et al., they published an academic paper, Health Disparities of Cardiometabolic Disorders Among Filipino Americans: Implications for Health Equity and Community-Based Genetic Research – PMC (nih.gov)

Jacqueline holds a bachelor’s degree in Hotel and Restaurant Administration from the University of the Philippines and earned multiple MBA-level Executive Certificates in Marketing & Business Strategies from Cornell University. She has worn several hats through the years. She is a former science scholar, restauranteur, teacher, sales and marketing consultant, copywriter, and editor, anthologist, and author. Above all, she is a mom.