John Michael Lerma grew up on a farm in North Dakota where he learned from his grandmother how to grow fruits and vegetables, prepare large meals, and can preserves.

John Michael was a winner at the 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 & 2011 National Pie Championship in Celebration, Florida sponsored by Crisco. He is a regular on KSTP's Twin Cities Live and a frequent guest on KARE 11's Saturday Morning News Show. He also appears on WCCO Sunday Morning Live Show and Cities 97 morning show with BT & Lee.

He was featured on the Food Network Special--All American Pie Championship November 2006 baking his Vidalia Onion Pie, won a Bronze Food Network medal on the Food Network Challenge--The Great Pie Cook-Off, November 2007.  John Michael has appeared in two more Food Network Challenges.  His latest was filmed in April 2009 to be aired in the fall of 2009.  

John Michael is a contributing chef at The Chef's Gallery in Stillwater, MN, Nordic Ware in St. Louis Park, MN and The Chef's Abode in Lilydalea, MN.  He is the director of Tuscan Gathering and Caribe Gathering culinary vacations in Cortona, Italy and Isla Mujeres, Mexico. His second cookbook Garden County Pie--Sweet and Savory Delights from the Table of John Michael Lerma was released December 2008 and he writes a monthly column for Lavender Magazine titled "Word of Mouth". John Michael is also a member of Slow Food USA and the American Pie Council.  

After surviving the 1997 flood that destroyed his hometown of Grand Forks, North Dakota, John Michael moved to the Twin Cities of Minnesota where he worked in management at a Fortune 500 company. John Michael turned to cooking, gardening, and food preservation as a form of relaxation and to recapture the life of contentment that he knew growing up in the Red River Valley. Eventually, John Michael began to enter his recipes in Minnesota State Fair competitions and has won numerous honors both locally and nationally.

John Michael received a degree in English from the University of North Dakota and has several short stories, poems, and plays published in regional and academic texts. He is a recipient of the Gladys Boen Award for Fiction.  His first cookbook Garden County--Where Everyone is Welcome to sit at the Table was nominated for "Cookbook of the Year" by the Independent Book Pubisher's Association in Washington, DC in 2006.