Dr. Monique Y. Wells

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  Arts/Literature - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 5/7/2006    Last Visited: 12/21/2007  

  Monique Y. Wells
  
  Author Toxicologist Animal Pathologist

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  Authors urge visitors to see the African-American... - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 9/22/2002    Last Visited: 9/22/2002  

  In a new guide book, Paris Reflections: Walks Through African-American Paris (McDonald & Woodward, $17.95), authors Christiann Anderson and Monique Wells document the African-American experience through a series of six walking tours.
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  Anderson and Wells walk the reader up and down the streets of Paris step by step, with no dry photos of monuments or tiny maps to navigate.
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  "I think that all American tourists, African-American or not, who visit Paris for the first time are struck by the diversity of the population here, particularly if they use public transportation," says co-author Monique Wells.Wells, who moved with her husband to Paris in 1992, is a veterinary pathologist who also runs a travel service with her husband called Discover Paris!, which provides personalized itineraries for independent travelers.
  
  In recent years, Paris's African-American community appears a bit more sprawled out.Though there are community events, they aren't attended by all residents, so it's not easy to know even how many do live here.
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  Wells speaks of how this goes beyond the arts, seeing it as an opening of opportunities that didn't exist before."More people are involved in corporations or are working independently as consultants in various fields.There are more scientists, bankers, translators, interpreters and marketing executives standing alongside the musicians, writers and artists than people generally think when they think of expatriates in Paris."
  
  Both authors see Paris Reflections having a strong appeal among non-African-American travelers as well, particularly those interested in the arts.And yet Anderson hopes that more black Americans will find their way over here, "those who have never thought of taking a walking tour of Paris with an African-American perspective."

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  Bios_Art/Literature - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 12/21/2007    Last Visited: 12/21/2007  

  Monique Y. Wells Author/Toxicologist/Animal Pathologist
  
  Monique Y. Wells is a veterinary pathologist and toxicologist with thirteen years of experience in the field of preclinical safety assessment of pharmaceuticals, other chemicals and medical devices.She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania (undergraduate degree in biology and French; doctorate in veterinary medicine) and The Ohio State University (master's degree in veterinary pathobiology).
  
  A native Houstonian, Wells and her husband have lived in Paris since 1992.
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  Wells is also a two-time author.Her first book, Food for the Soul, is a labor of love ­ for family, for cooking and for history.

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  Challenge Group - CULTURAL CONNECTION - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 1/1/2003    Last Visited: 1/1/2003  

  Monique Y. Wells, author of Food for the Soul.
  
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  Texan-turned-Parisian, Dr. Monique Y. Wells, was in Brooklyn this past week to tell the unique story of her book Food for the Soul.During an intimate gathering at the home of Link Dr. Marcella Maxwell, sister links of the Greater New York Chapter and Brooklyn Links Chapter of The Links Inc. and friends gathered to hear Dr. Wells' (a trained veterinary pathologist) inspiring story.
  
  After moving to Paris in June 1992, Dr. Wells became involved with a group of women soon to be known as SISTERS, an association of Black-American Women in France.She and another member began longing for the comfort food that they grew up on they decided to write a cookbook.Dr. Wells agreed and when the friend had to drop out, she kept on with the project.She collected family recipes, researched where in Paris you could find ingredients, found a translator (she speaks French fluently now but writing in another language is a separate problem) and finished the manuscript.However, after years of work there was still no publisher.La Cuisine Noire Américaine a French version of the book eventually came through thanks to a man she has never met -- one of the world's most famous chefs and the only chef with six Michelin stars, Alain Ducasse.
  
  Food for the Soul is a feast for the eyes as well as the palate and recounts the memories associated with many of the recipes that Dr. Wells presents.She speaks of her mother's Louisiana roots and the initiative that her mother took to preserve the recipes that her family brought to Texas from Louisiana.She talks of the pride and care that her father, a native Texan, takes in his barbecue - The Best Barbecue in the World!She also celebrates the tracing of her roots through her maternal grandfather's Creole family back to the Bordeaux region of France.
  
  Additionally Dr. Wells has recently launched a new dimension to her passionate love for cooking called Discover African American History in Paris walking tours.Her tours are related to specific sections in Paris.The tours are divided in four distinct self-guided tours covering different areas of the City of Light in the 5, 6, 8 and 9 arrondissements (neighborhoods).

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  Contempora Magazine for African American Southern... - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 8/10/2004    Last Visited: 5/23/2006  

  Monique Y. Wells is a veterinary pathologist and an 8-year resident of Paris, France.She is the author of Food for the Soul, a soul food cookbook which is to be published in the United States this year.The French translation of the book, entitled La Cuisine Noire Americaine, was published in France in October 1999.Dr. Wells and her husband are also the owners of the travel service Discover Paris!:Personalized itineraries for Independent Travelers - cp

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  Food for the Soul - A Soul Food Cookbook: About the... - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 6/27/2000    Last Visited: 11/16/2005  

  Photo of Monique Y. Wells, Monique Y. Wells, a native of Houston, Texas, is a longtime resident of Paris.She has successfully pursued a career in veterinary pathology both in the U.S. and abroad, and has now ventured forth to explore her passion for cooking with her first book, Food for the Soul.
  
  Wells left home at the age of 16 to pursue undergraduate studies in biology and French at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.Not overly fond of cooking while living at home, she began to appreciate its pleasures when she brought together the only three other African-American Houstonians at her apartment at Penn for a soul food dinner.
  
  She expanded her interest in cooking during her veterinary school and graduate school years, and continued to develop her culinary skills while employed full time as a pathologist.When the laboratory for which she worked announced plans for its closure, Dr. Wells decided to pursue her dream to live and work in France.
  
  After two years of searching, she found a position and moved to Paris.She immediately began to look for ways to expand her culinary skills, and soon found a chef willing to give her lessons in pastry making.During this time, she became involved with a group of women soon to be known as SISTERS, An Association of Black-American Women in France.It was in collaboration with the first president of this organization that the idea of a cookbook for African Americans in Paris was born.
  
  Dr. Wells expanded upon this idea to produce a manuscript revolving primarily around family recipes as a tribute to her Texas and Creole Louisiana roots.

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  Gadfly Online. - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 3/11/2002    Last Visited: 10/22/2008  

  MONIQUE WELLS TALKS ABOUT THE AFRICAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE IN PARIS AND COOKING THE FOODS OF HOME
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  In the Washington Post critique of Monique Wells' book Food for the Soul—A Texas Expatriate Nurtures Her Culinary Roots In Paris, writer Charles Trueheart teasingly observes that, "it takes a certain nerve for an American to tell the French anything about cooking."
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  Wells is not a chef by trade—she is a veterinary pathologist for L'Oréal and also runs a personalized itinerary travel service with her husband called Discover Paris. But with Food for the Soul, Wells isn't so much trying to tell the French how to cook as she is humbly documenting her family's culinary past. ,
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  Monique Wells
  
  It was intended just to be a collection of soul food recipes for the Paris-based African American womens group called SISTERS to which Wells belongs. But it grew beyond that. Though its manuscript was written in English, the book actually was first published in French in 1999, under the title, La Cuisine Noire Americaine. Wells had presented it to several publishers and after a series of ups and downs, the manuscript was shown to famed French chef Alain Ducasse, who supported it and wrote the forward.
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  Because it was going to first appear for the French, Wells expanded the manuscript, beyond the recipes and family anecdotes to include a small history of food preparations in African American homes, and how the cuisine developed by making the most from the scraps of food given to slaves by their masters.
  
  Of course there are hundreds of recipe books out there, and even those are becoming outmoded due to the number of cooking websites. What gives value to Wells' book is the balance that is struck between the familiar formula of recipe parlance on each page and conversationally written anecdotes about the importance of a certain dish in her family and what it means to her now. This brings more meaning and insight into the meals and their ingredients, knowing a particular food was the favorite of her aunt or her cousin. "It was the second of the three publishers who suggested I add more information," Wells explains.
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  Though Wells lists the different shops which sell American food products, she also provides the helpful aid of ingredient substitutions. Such as mimollette in place of cheddar. There is also the amusing note about French meat in the recipe for pan sausage that no matter how long she cooked it—even to the point of burning the top and bottom—the inside of the sausage remained pink.
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  Wells thinks so.
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  Wells, along with her husband, has been living in Paris for over a decade. There are so many reasons that Americans find themselves living abroad, and for Wells, it was one of simple practicality.
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  When asked about it, Wells is quite frank on the subject.
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  "Four are in more touristy areas, two are off the beaten path," explains Wells.
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  With these books, Wells is demonstrating another facet of expatriate life for Americans. Many would agree that the story of Paris is just as much the story of its foreigners—some celebrated, most not. It is a strange thing to live outside one's country, and if I can say it, the act of doing so has a different, heightened dynamic when you are of a people that has been historically disenfranchised in your native land. To take on and adopt a new culture by choice is exhilarating. Monique Wells has written one book about keeping one's old world alive in the new, and another book that celebrates the place of the new world for those of the old.

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  Gadfly Online. - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 10/12/2001    Last Visited: 11/9/2002  

  MONIQUE WELLS TALKS ABOUT THE AFRICAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE IN PARIS AND COOKING THE FOODS OF HOME
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  Wells is not a chef by trade-she is a veterinary pathologist for L'Oréal and also runs a personalized itinerary travel service with her husband called Discover Paris.But with Food for the Soul, Wells isn't so much trying to tell the French how to cook as she is humbly documenting her family's culinary past.
  
  If leaving home makes us appreciate it, than this is surely magnified when one chooses to live an ocean away.The sounds and smells of home become larger than life and it is not too much of an exaggeration to say that some of us find ourselves swooning at the taste of something as unromantic as an Oreo-hardly Proust with his madeleines, but there you have it.At its most convenient and cynical, this is the motivating factor of what must lead Americans to dine at McDonalds in other countries.But it also creates a desire to seek out and make for ourselves the tastes of hearth and home.Food for the Soul captures this spirit.
  
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  Monique Wells
  
  It was intended just to be a collection of soul food recipes for the Paris-based African American womens group called SISTERS to which Wells belongs.But it grew beyond that.Though its manuscript was written in English, the book actually was first published in French in 1999, under the title, La Cuisine Noire Americaine.Wells had presented it to several publishers and after a series of ups and downs, the manuscript was shown to famed French chef Alain Ducasse, who supported it and wrote the forward.
  ...
  Because it was going to first appear for the French, Wells expanded the manuscript, beyond the recipes and family anecdotes to include a small history of food preparations in African American homes, and how the cuisine developed by making the most from the scraps of food given to slaves by their masters.
  
  Of course there are hundreds of recipe books out there, and even those are becoming outmoded due to the number of cooking websites.What gives value to Wells' book is the balance that is struck between the familiar formula of recipe parlance on each page and conversationally written anecdotes about the importance of a certain dish in her family and what it means to her now.This brings more meaning and insight into the meals and their ingredients, knowing a particular food was the favorite of her aunt or her cousin."It was the second of the three publishers who suggested I add more information," Wells explains."He felt that to sell it to the French, they would really like to know more about Louisiana cooking and culture.So that got me started on a historical kick.I also came across information about the various ingredients and where they came from and dispelled some myths that I had held."
  
  This is revealed in the book, with a look at the differences, for example, between sweet potatoes and yams (sweet potatoes are orangier and have more of a naturally moist taste) and even etymology (the word "yam" comes from the West African word nyami).
  
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  Though Wells lists the different shops which sell American food products, she also provides the helpful aid of ingredient substitutions.Such as mimollette in place of cheddar.There is also the amusing note about French meat in the recipe for pan sausage that no matter how long she cooked it-even to the point of burning the top and bottom-the inside of the sausage remained pink."Apparently there is something in the meat deliberately.At a Southern food symposium [I attended], a man stood up and said that it's a preservative of some kind to give it an appetizing appearance."This is another one of the many cultural divides between the two nations.Whereas many in the U.S. won't eat meat cooked less than medium-well anymore, here even well-done looks rare.Very rare-and still there is a coloring used.Why such the panic in the U.S.?
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  Wells thinks so."In the U.S., we are a little too concerned with being clean, with things that are perceived to be a danger to our health.I don't know if that leads us to being sue-crazy, or vice versa.And when it does happen, the media gets ahold of it and plays it up for all it is worth.A self-fullfilling prophecy, perhaps."
  
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  Wells, along with her husband, has been living in Paris for over a decade.There are so many reasons that Americans find themselves living abroad, and for Wells, it was one of simple practicality."I loved the language.I studied French since I was in preschool, all my life.But even after a French minor in college, I still couldn't speak it.I knew that the only way I could become fluent was to immerse myself-and I just wanted to experience another culture."
  
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  When asked about it, Wells is quite frank on the subject."I know that most black Americans would like to believe that all black people on earth are one big happy family.That the fact that you are black and you go to Africa that you are going to be welcome… that's the way they would like for it to be and a lot of people do believe that because they don't go anywhere.I have a lot of friends who have traveled and tell me that is not the case.Certainly here there are divisions between the African peoples, Caribbeans, and African Americans.When I say divisions, I don't mean there is hostility.There are so many cultural differences that cannot be bridged simply because we are all black.
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  "Four are in more touristy areas, two are off the beaten path," explains Wells."The book was inspired by the Discover Paris walks.My intention was to expose where black people have been in Paris and what they have done, but not outside of the context of France.It would be a shame to isolate them and not talk about some of the things that have happened that are important in French culture.Hopefully what has been accomplished is to have a lively, not very heavy, but still very informative walk that one could enjoy even without coming to Paris."
  
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  With these books, Wells is demonstrating another facet of expatriate life for Americans.Many would agree that the story of Paris is just as much the story of its foreigners-some celebrated, most not.It is a strange thing to live outside one's country, and if I can say it, the act of doing so has a different, heightened dynamic when you are of a people that has been historically disenfranchised in your native land.To take on and adopt a new culture by choice is exhilarating.Monique Wells has written one book about keeping one's old world alive in the new, and another book that celebrates the place of the new world for those of the old.Somewhere in between is every story.

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  Guestbook - Women in London England UK - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 10/1/1999    Last Visited: 6/22/2006  

  Panel: Prof Susan Greenfield (RI) and Drs Nicole Dewandre (EC Research Directorate), Nancy Lane (Cambridge University), Joan Mason (AWiSE) and Monique Wells (L'Oreal) All lectures will be held at The Royal Institution, 21 Albemarle Street, London W1S 4BS.

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  Women in science - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 9/21/2000    Last Visited: 2/10/2001  

  Monique Wells, 38, made up her mind to do veterinary studies at the age of four."Even then, I was fascinated by biology, anatomy and medicine," she said."I had my own microscope before I was eight."After working as a veterinary pathologist in the pharmaceutical and chemical industries, then spending nine years as a diagnostic veterinary pathologist, she joined L'Oréal 14 months ago to supervise the safety of raw materials.She brings an American's viewpoint to the question of women's inequality in scientific careers: "In the past, girls who wanted to study math or science were discouraged by their parents and teachers.Those who persisted encountered discrimination and even harassment from their male colleagues.The success of women scientists in recent decades has broken down many barriers, but not all."She believes women are better equipped to be good doctors or vets because they combine scientific rigor with skills in human contact and understanding.
  
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  "Science is the career of the future"

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