I started my food journey as a student at FIT in New York City when I was completing an intensive 1-year fashion design program post university. I worked in fashion for a few years but was more excited about what I was making for dinner than what I was designing. I was starting to associate what I ate with how I felt; and I was beginning what I now realize was the start of my food and cooking journey. Even then, there was nothing that I enjoyed more than having a special friend over for dinner and having a good conversation. I noticed how a good relaxed home-cooked meal set the stage for real connection. Philosophizing and connecting over a home-cooked meal is something that I still cherish today. It may just be my biggest motivator for having people over for to eat.
At that point I was intrigued by the bins of mysterious ingredients that I would encounter in natural food stores. I found my way to AnneMarie Colbin’s school, the Natural Gourmet Institute, and attended a few classes. I was hooked—I wanted to take everything, know more, and above all, keep investigating. I landed myself in one of the first part-time chef training programs the school ever offered. At the time, I had no idea what I would do with what I was learning, but I knew that the skills I learned would never go to waste. I’ve since found that the best things in life happen when I’ve felt compelled to do something without knowing exactly why.
At that school, I learned about whole grains and legumes, macrobiotic condiments, the concept of a relationship between food and health, and a whole lot more. The school served as the first springboard for the rest of my culinary education over the next quarter century. I’ve kept on assimilating along the way—the path is endless and gratifying; and I’ll never stop learning. The culinary path meanders as I do. My journey has been quirky and endlessly fascinating.
I started professionally cooking by working in a home food service, filling a week’s worth of meals in a pick-up. That led to my first intense full-time cooking job, a 5-year stint at Angelika Kitchen, a New York vegan institution. I cooked specials to serve 100 in the span of a few hours, ordered the produce from local farmers, headed the pastry department, and learned valuable lessons about food and life. Cooking “boot camp” style was basically a daily improvisational catering gig–it’s where I learned to cook speedily under pressure and improvise in the kitchen, skills that served me well in the many years I later spent teaching. From carrying heavy buckets of food from the basement storage area to the kitchen, my back muscles developed to such a degree that a ballroom dance instructor asked me with curiosity what I did for a living! To round out my education I also trained at other restaurants such as Nosmo King, Le Cote Basque, and Verbena as well as completing a certificate in classic pastry at Peter Kump’s in New York City (now known as ICE).
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