Eileen Talanian is a noted cookbook author (Chewy Cookies, Prima Publishing, 1995; Marshmallows: Homemade Gourmet Treats, Gibbs Smith, Publisher, 2008; Bread Pudding: Gourmet Sweet and Savory Recipes, Gibbs Smith, 2009), pastry chef, business entrepreneur, and food consultant, whose main area of focus has become baking with all its delightful, inherent ingredients and attributes.

Eileen has served on the prestigious Board of Directors of the Philadelphia Chapters of The American Institute of Wine and Food, and Les Dames d’Escoffier International. 

She provides upscale, innovative dessert menu consulting for quality-conscious restaurants.

Because of her belief that “butter is better” and that European style butter is better than regular butter, she has consulted with Keller’s Creamery to promote increased use of Plugra, their European style butter, among consumers. For them, she created special recipes for their Best-Ever Holiday Cookies electronic brochure, which successfully drove their holiday sales.

Eileen founded An American Kitchen, an artisanal regional wholesale and mail order company, supplying the restaurant industry and consumers with sweet pastries and European-style hand-shaped cookies.

It won the coveted Best of Philly award for the Cookies category by Philadelphia Magazine, and was twice recommended by the hard-to-surprise food critics from The New York Times: 1. Valentine's Day by Florence Fabricant, who described the products as “excellent.” 2. Holiday Gift List by Marion Burros, who featured An American Kitchen in the lead-in article, describing it as “a big hit” with the taste testers.

Under her leadership, An American Kitchen doubled its revenues every year. After more than 10 years of her stewardship, she decided to sell it to a larger manufacturer in order to spend more much-needed time with her family.

As a business consultant, Eileen advised specialty caterers for the Philadelphia Eagles, where she developed and provided high quality desserts and cookies for the personal brunches hosted by the owner of the team. Her cookies became so popular, they were also selected for the private boxes where the team families watched the games.

Eileen assisted the catering departments of the University of Pennsylvania and Swarthmore College to develop and provide exquisite and popular items for their high end catering events. In addition, An American Kitchen supplied their on-campus coffee houses with highly successful cookies and bars that spiked sales in that department and drove high margin profits. 

Eileen consulted with management for Xando Corporation, which purchased and now uses the Cosi name, to strategically market high quality cookies and bars in the Philadelphia area, increasing their average check sales. She provided product to all of the Xando and Cosi stores in the greater Philadelphia area.