Local chef to launch book series, consulting service, under title 'The Seasoned Cynic'

Madeleine Dee, former owner of Fond, announced a series of cookbooks, a new video series as well as a new consulting venture.

The founder of Fond, the popular restaurant on Frankfort Avenue that closed last summer, is getting her ducks in a row, so to speak.

Madeleine Dee also is purveyor of Fond Originals, her packaged food line, an author and producer of her cooking show web series, Easy Elegance. Going forward, her endeavors will be branded under one name, The Seasoned Cynic.

Dee will utilize her culinary experience in combination with her love of travel, writing and video production to create a suite of consulting services for the food industry, from menu consulting for restaurant owners to cooking classes. She also will continue to do pop-up restaurants when opportunities arise and is currently working on a series of cookbooks and developing a new video series about food and travel.

And if you’re wondering about the name, yes, there’s a back story. Dee was bullied as a youngster, which explains a natural cynicism.

“Those experiences made me very cynical about and afraid of people in general,” she said. “When I started to cook, I found a way to communicate with others, and for the first time in my life, I felt understood.”

She began learning this lesson thanks to Fond, she said, noting the she found food to be “the great connector.” Therefore, her new web series under the Seasoned Cynic title will showcase ways in which food brings people together and how it makes people similar.

In addition, her first book, “The Seasoned Cynic’s Guide to Cake,” is available now in print and digital formats and features “cake recipes so simple and foolproof that you’ll never have any need to use box mix again,” Dee said.

A future book, she noted, will be a guide to appetizers.

And in case you’re wondering, there are plans – sort of – to one day revive Fond, which served dinner on Friday and Saturday nights only, to a small group of people, ensuring an intimate, dinner party type of dining experience.

“Fond was a remarkably rewarding chapter of my life,” Dee told Hello Louisville. “Whenever I find the perfect location, I will reopen it with a full staff so I don’t exhaust myself running a restaurant alone. I also have some ideas for pop-up restaurants. Many, many plans. Just need to figure out how and when to do it all.”