Norene Gilletz was born in Winnipeg in 1940, and moved to Montreal at the age of 19. There she found her calling for two of her passions: cooking and Jewish community. Like many other young Jewish women in that community, Norene became involved in the organization B’nai Brith Women. It was in the Mount Sinai #1091 chapter of the Eastern Canadian wing of the organization where her two passions came together. Norene and other women began compiling a cookbook as a fundraising project for the chapter. It was intended to combine a variety of traditional Jewish recipes with an emphasis on convenience and simplicity. The final product was Second Helpings Please! and it eventually sold over 200,000 copies.  This success launched Norene into the Canadian culinary spotlight. The title of this cookbook “Say Cheese Please!” is a deliberate callback to the previous bestseller. At the time of publication, “Say Cheese Please!” describes Norene as “well-known cooking authority” and “a cooking consultant” who “has made guest appearances on radio and television”. Norene’s fame and adoration grew in the Canadian Jewish community and beyond. She moved to Toronto and would later go on to publish several other cookbooks and launch her own company: Gourmania. She passed away in March of 2020 in Montreal.”