It's a good thing Harris loves to cook because she's been doing it since she was 12, as a latch-key kid in the 1950s, a rare thing then.

Born in New York City, Harris' mother worked and her father ran a diner in Harlem. When she was born, a neighbor, a German man who was a woodcrafter, gave her mother a rolling pin he'd made. "This is all I can give you for the birth of your child," he said. Little did he know that child would later become a certified pastry chef, having studied with Gunther Heiland, the Austrian pastry master and owner of Desserts International in Exton, Pa.

"I'm a good 'bench baker,'" says Harris. "I like the grudge work, producing mass amounts of things. But don't ask me to decorate."

When Rania was 9 years old the family moved to Pittsburgh. She has one older sister. "When I was 12, I did all the cooking," she remembers. "Everybody worked, and when they came home, I was expected to have dinner ready."

In 1979, Harris began baking for restaurants and gourmet shops in the area, including Kaufmann's Department Store bakery in downtown Pittsburgh. For 10 years, she baked and sold pastries, specializing in the pastries of her Greek Orthodox heritage. By word-of-mouth, her business grew and expanded into full-service catering. "I didn't even have a listed phone number," says Harris.

In 1985, she opened her own kitchen in her current location at 100 Central Square in Mt. Lebanon.


Read more about Rania...

View Rania's Red Zone Recipes as featured on KDKA's Pittsburgh Today Live.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Sunday, August 7, 2005
Who's the caterer? She's the mother of the bride!
http://post-gazette.com/pg/pp/05219/548857.stm

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Sunday, August 7, 2005
Cookies have wedding guests hearing bells
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05219/548874.stm

Tribune Review, Sunday, April 18, 2004
Rania Harris: Always ready to go
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/style/s_189530.html

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Sunday, September 21, 2003
Dinner with Rania is a class act
http://www.pittsburghpostgazette.com/food/20030921suz0921fnp3.asp

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Sunday, April 15, 2001
Mt. Lebanon cooking teacher and caterer shares secrets and quips
http://www.postgazette.com/food/20010415rania2.asp

Heinz Announces Recipe Contest Winners (PDF file)