Most libraries have cookbooks, but Mentor Public Library has launched a new program where people can borrow a chef. The library is now loaning Shelf to Chef kits from its Main Branch, 8215 Mentor Ave. The kits come with a cookbook, specialized cooking gear and a QR code that links to a video where C hef Stefanie Paganini walks the library patron through one of the recipes in the cookbook, using the kit’s equipment, according to a news release. Paganini is a Mentor Public Library librarian, and she’s also a trained chef who worked for more than 15 years as a pastry-chef educator at the International Culinary Arts Sciences Institute in Chester Township and taught for the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City. The library offers kits and videos for making paella, madeleines, carrot-cake muffins, pain de mie, quiche and crème-fraiche tarts. During her videos, Paganini sprinkles in tidbits about where vanilla comes from, the origin of paella and how yeast works. Adults with a library card in the CLEVNET consortium can borrow the kits for up to two weeks with no renewals. They will need to come to Mentor Public Library’s Main Branch to both pick up and drop off the kits. They also will need to sign a Library of Things Waiver Release form. CLEVNET is a consortium of 47 local library systems, including all of the public library systems in Lake and Geauga counties. Finally, anyone who wants to watch Paganini’s cooking tutorials can find them on Mentor Public Library’s YouTube channel. ...read more read less