Here’s a selection of some of our most popular instructors and a little more about them and what makes them tick! Check it out:
PETER BERLEY
Peter Berley is a chef, cookbook author, and culinary instructor. Peter’s foremost concern is the development of local sustainable food systems and the fate of home cooking in America.
Chef Berley is the owner of The North Fork Kitchen and Garden, a culinary studio where he teaches intensive workshops on Modern Food Craft and Wood Fired bread baking and cooking. This unique setting provides the products from his garden and nearby farms, as well as local dairy and seafood from the Great Peconic Bay.
Berley is the former executive chef of the world-renowned Angelica Kitchen restaurant in New York City.
He is the chef at The Culinary Loft in NYC, holds classes at ICE and Natural Gourmet Institutes, and works as a personal chef in East Hampton in the summer.
Berley has contributed to Edible Brooklyn, Food and Wine, Bon Appetit, Everyday with Rachel Ray, Natural Health, Cooking Light, and Fine Cooking magazines.
His ground-breaking book, “The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen,” received both James Beard and IACP Awards. A second book of his, “Fresh Food Fast,” was chosen as one of the 25 Best of 2005 by Food and Wine Magazine. Peter’s new book, “The Flexitarian Table; Inspired Flexible Meals for Vegetarians, Meat lovers and Everyone In Between,” was released in 2007.
MEGUIRE CAMPBELL
Type of cuisine I like to cook:
I am a baker. Baking is a huge and consistent part of my regular life. You’ll always find various types of cookie dough in my freezer and usually some kind of coffee cake or quick bread on my counter. My professional training stems from classic French pastry with lots of butter, however, because of some unfortunate new dietary issues, I have recently become pretty adept at creating non-dairy recipes that don’t taste at all “healthy”. In my household, dinner is eaten at the table, and usually focused around whatever bottle of wine I have brought home.
Specialty:
Pairing wine and food, examining the historical context of viticultural regions, and demystifying intimidating wine jargon. I also love tackling daunting tasks like creating wedding cakes in a tiny Brooklyn apartment.
Favorite kitchen tool:
Ok, I have 2: the Pulltap corkscrew — all you ever need to open and bottle of wine; and a rubber bowl scraper — it’s like an extension of your hand. Both fit perfectly in your back pocket.
Past & Present:
I got an after school and weekend job at a local bakery when I turned 15 so I could eat my favorite cookies for free (butter cookies dipped in chocolate, covered in rainbow colored non-perils). After college, I had an apprenticeship with a husband and wife baking team at a French Bakery. She taught me pastry, he — bread. I worked as a manager at Balthazar Bakery and Amy’s Bread, freelanced at catering companies throughout NYC, and was a pastry cook at Marlow and Sons.
I’ve now been working in the wine industry for the past 5 years in restaurants and most recently worked as a buyer for a retail shop in Brooklyn. Wine continues to inspire and excite me in a way that nothing else does. The complexity of a certain bottle, learning about the the history of a particular growing region, and experiencing the compelling chemistry between a glass of wine paired perfectly with the right meal are all elements that make my job ultimately satisfying. I am lucky enough to get to taste and explore wine in a group setting where we hone in on certain characteristics of the wine and identify the various aromas and flavor profiles in an unjudgemental, relaxed environment.
AMELIA DI MARCO
Type of cuisine I like to cook:
I am Italian so my natural predisposition is cooking Italian, which I love. When I am not cooking Italian, I still keep a traditional European approach making paella or shepherd’s pie, for example, or goulash, which is one of my favorite stews ever.
Specialty:
Traditional Italian recipes: everything from hand made pasta to chicken liver crostini as well as meats. I like my meat very rare so I NEVER overcook it.
Favorite kitchen tool:
My wooden spoon. I have had it since I moved to NY 5 years ago. I have 5 others that I never use. My spoon is beginning to get a bit smaller and I will be very sad when the time comes to break-in a new one.
Past & Present:
Despite the fact that cooking is a big part of my life, it is not exactly my career. I work in the wine industry, which is very complementary, and I started to teach cooking classes to tourists only seasonally while I was living in Tuscany and working at a winery.
My passion for wine continued to grow more and more while I was in Italy so I stayed in the industry when I moved to New York. I continued to cook at home or for some private students until I joined the talented group of Brooklyn Kitchen instructors with my own series of classes called Tour d’ Italia. The purpose of my classes is simply to share love for food with emphasis on authentic recipes from my country.
KATE DUFF
Type of cuisine I like to cook:
Anything involving fresh, quality ingredients. Right now, I’m cooking my way through Anna Hansen’s wonderful The Modern Pantry cookbook.
Specialty:
Braising – I love letting that oven (and time) do the work for me.
Favorite kitchen tool:
I teach knife skills, so I have to go with a standard chef’s knife. But the microplane zester is a very close second.
Past & Present:
A Queens native, I studied cuisine at Le Cordon Bleu, Paris, and I now live, cook, and teach in Brooklyn. I believe that anyone can cook delicious food at home, and my classes focus on helping students develop fundamental technical skills and a baseline comfort level that together open up the possibilities of the home kitchen. I read cookbooks in my spare time and hope one day to publish a cookbook of my own. When I’m not thinking about my next opportunity to eat or cook, I serve as a volunteer tour guide at a local contemporary art museum.
RICK FIELD
Type of cuisine I like to cook:
First and foremost, I am a soup guy. Hot and sour, borscht, cream of watercress, anything rameny… I love making stocks and using them in all kinds of ways. Soup is fun in my opinion because a recipe is a template that you can deviate from depending on your whims and what’s available. Soup, baby!
Specialty:
Roasted chicken with stuffing, mashed potatoes and beans (thanks, Mom!). Cornmeal fried pickles with Montauk Green hot sauce (email me for the recipe!).
Favorite kitchen tool:
It would be unprofessional to say anything other than a jar lifter (for removing pickle jars from the processing pot). However, if I could only take one implement with me to a desert island, it would be my Global chef knife.
Past & Present:
I came to NYC in the 80s to be a film and TV director and spent about 15 years going down that path, working a lot for VH1 and at PBS for Bill Moyers. Nostalgia for summer pickling with my family in Vermont led me to replicate the recipes of my childhood. The cramped kitchen in my one-bedroom in Prospect Heights was a lab for about seven years. I won Best In Show at the Rosendale Pickle Fest back to back years at the beginning of the 00′s and lost my job around the same time, so I made the obvious career pivot from TV to pickles. And I’ve never looked back. Teaching at Brooklyn Kitchen provides an outlet for me to share the pleasures of small-batch canning. When you run a business, there’s lots and lots and lots of paperwork and I love being able to put that to the side for a couple of hours and pass along the simple set of pickling skills I learned my my folks. We live in a culture of screens: we stare at computers at work, at phones on the way home, and then pass out in from of TVs. The tactile engagement that you get from working with vegetables and preserving them is something that everyone should appreciate and cherish.
MEGAN FITZROY
Title:
Executive Pastry Chef Torrisi Italian Specialties and Parm Restaurant, chef/owner of Fitzroy Specialty Cakes and Pastries
Type of cuisine I like to cook:
I stick to desserts and baked goods. I have a tendency to lean towards Italian cuisine because of its simple approach and clean flavors that make the ingredients the star of the dish. I love chocolate, so I tend to do a lot with that, and I’ve been told I’m obsessed with ice cream, which may be true.
Specialty:
Anything chocolate. I also make some great simple appetizers. My other love is wine, so naturally I started creating appetizers and snacks to pair with my wine. Cheese and homemade crackers are my favorite.
Favorite kitchen tool:
French Spatula, i.e. “bowl scraper”. That little flexible plastic rectangle that can clean a bowl quickly and easily with one swipe. It is ten times easier to use and more efficient than a regular rubber spatula.
Past & Present:
I went to college for Interior Design/Architecture. After receiving my degree, I had a change of heart and thought maybe I wanted to bake for a living instead. I was able to find a job working under a pastry chef in West Hartford, Connecticut, who trained me for years. After four years of working under his supervision, I moved to New York City. I worked at Daniel Restaurant, then Falai Restaurant. I then started my specialty cakes business while still working. I am now the executive pastry chef of Torrisi Italian Specialties and Parm Restaurant, make cakes for clients in my spare time, and teach classes at Brooklyn Kitchen for fun!
KEAVY LANDRETH at work. Keavy Blueher at home.
Type of cuisine I like to cook:
Professionally, I make mini cupcakes, but at home I make comforting vegetarian cuisine.
Specialty:
At work my specialty is in being able to combine ingredients to create a perfect bite sized morsel in which all the flavors work perfectly together. I especially love salty-sweet combinations like our Maple Bacon and Peanut Butter Banana Honey cupcakes.
At home I love making risotto. It was the first thing my mom taught me how to make when I was little, and it remains my favorite comfort food to this day.
Favorite kitchen tool:
At work it’s the spice grinder for my lavender seeds. I’m still awed by how fast it can pulverize the seeds into lavender dust.
At home it’s my flat wooden spoon, which is very helpful when stirring risotto.
Past & Present:
I’ve worked in restaurants all my life. I started when I was 16 working as a line cook in my small town’s favorite breakfast spot and have worked almost every position in restaurants since then: dishwasher, pastry chef, prep cook, barista, hostess, etc…
I came to New York in 2001 to go to Parsons School of Design, from where I graduated in Illustration, foolishly thinking a career in paintings would get me out of the food world. Upon graduating, however, I quickly fell back into working at coffee shops while painting on the side. Growing weary of this, I quit in order to pursue my growing interest in cupcakes. After much praise by customers and the press I was able to focus on cupcakes exclusively and have since made it my full time job.
We currently only do catering for large parties and weddings and have expanded our clientele to include many large names like Bergdorf Goodman and Thomas Pink. We also have a stand at the Brooklyn Flea where we sell every weekend.
NATHAN LEAMY
Type of cuisine I like to cook:
I love to play with chiles. I spent a portion of my youth in Texas and lived in Mexico for six months after college. I could easily eat a burrito every day for the rest of my life.
Specialty:
Sourdough bread.
Favorite kitchen tool:
A pastry knife. It keeps my counters clean and my fingernails intact.
Past & Present:
I grew up in Portland, Oregon. My interest in food and agriculture began when I attended Deep Springs College, where I studied politics and managed 152 acres of organically grown alfalfa. After Deep Springs, I attended Oberlin College. There, I spent time working with the student cooperative association that eventually developed a housing and dining cooperative focused on educating students to eat well. I have spent time working for the government and various non-profits. Post college, I completed a Watson Fellowship studying how global changes in agricultural and economic policy have altered the consumption of traditional breads in Mexico, India, France, Italy, and Egypt. I also works for Slow Food USA, a national non-profit working to make a better food supply through grassroots organizing.
RIENNE M MARTINEZ
Type of cuisine I like to cook:
I spent many years living in Central and South America and enjoy bringing the flavors and cooking techniques from these areas of the world into my everyday cooking. Ample spices and slow cooking finished with bright herbs are right up my alley.
Specialty:
Seafood. My upbringing in the Pacific Northwest eating salmon eggs off of cedar branches and hunting for oysters sealed the deal.
Favorite kitchen tool:
A good Swiss veggie peeler. They are magic.
Past and Present:
I knew in 6th grade that I would make a living cooking. I used to wait for the state fair to come around to enter as many food stuffs as allowed. I would wait for my blue ribbon prize money to arrive to buy mini pie tins for next years bake.
I went to the Culinary Art and Hospitality school in Seattle 10 year ago and have been working in food and hospitality since. My career choice has allowed me to have some amazing adventures. I owned a restaurant in Costa Rica, was the chef on a private Island in Alaska, and imported wine from Argentina.
I am currently the Wine Director and General Manager of Terroir Murray Hill. I enjoy spending everyday talking with people about food, wine, and the ability to taste. Food makes people happy, brings them together, continues traditions, and allows for innovations. It is what we make it and that is why I cook!
BOB McCLURE
Type of cuisine I like to cook:
I like to experiment with pizzas, making my own crusts, arugula from the garden, etc.
Specialty:
Dutch oven. It’s like a little bit of magic in that pot.
Favorite kitchen tool:
Sodastream – a moment never goes by when I don’t feel I need some carbonated water.
Past & Present:
I moved to NY as an actor and writer and, looking for more stability, started McClure’s Pickles in 2006 with my brother Joe and our great-grandmother’s spicy pickle recipe. We started selling our products to only a few stores and we now sell to over 500. We make everything by hand in our own factory (except for our potato chips which are made by Better Made Snacks, which has been making chips since 1930).
BRENDAN MCDERMOTT
Type of cuisine I like to cook:
I would have to say that Spanish and Moroccan food are some of my favorite foods to cook. I like strong flavors that have a comfort food feel.
Specialty:
I like learning a little bit of everything, so I have tried working with a variety of cooking styles: everything from Spanish, Italian, Jamaican, to pastry.
Favorite kitchen tool:
Big knives and fire!
Past & Present:
I started as a dishwasher in high school, tried other fields of work, but always found myself back in kitchens. I graduated culinary school (Peter Kump) in 2001 and have never looked back.
I love being around food and am always trying to learn something new.
DAN PIZZILLO
Type of beer that I like to brew:
I like brewing all different styles of beer, but the ones that I brew most often are American IPAs (India Pale Ales) and Belgian Ales. I love beers with a lot of hop flavor and aroma, but I also appreciate the subtle differences of the wide variety of available Belgian yeast strains (especially the “wild” Brettanomyces strains).
Specialty:
Most brewers brew in a similar fashion, but the areas that I focus on more-so than some other brewers that I know are: manipulating my brewing water chemistry to suit the style of beer that I’m brewing, and experimenting with wild yeast strains and yeast blends.
Most interesting brewing equipment:
I have a pretty fancy means of chilling my wort (note: wort is beer before the yeast has been added). When I’m finished boiling the wort, it runs into my chiller at boiling temperature, is immediately cooled down to the proper temperature for adding the yeast (usually around 65° F), is injected with pure oxygen (to help grow healthy yeast), and then runs into my fermenter, ready for the yeast to be pitched in. It’s pretty similar to a commercial brewery’s chilling system.
Past & Present:
I started homebrewing in 2007, back when I lived in Virginia. I loved drinking craft beer, and thought that learning to brew would help me understand why I like the beers that I did. After getting a basic brewing setup and brewing my first batch, it immediately became an obsession of mine. Initially, the scientific nature of brewing is what drew me in (the fact that it involves microbiology, chemistry, engineering, etc.), and later, it was the artistic side that kept me interested.
I moved to Brooklyn in 2009 and shortly after, I met Harry, helped him set up the Brooklyn Kitchen’s inventory of homebrewing equipment and ingredients at the (then new) Frost Street location, and began teaching homebrewing classes. Since then, I’ve been involved in many local beer events (Get Real, Brooklyn Wort, etc.) and I’m currently the (2012) president of the Malted Barley Appreciation Society–Brooklyn’s oldest homebrew/beer-enthusiast club.
Some of my first batches of beer weren’t the best (ok, they were pretty bad!) and it’s been awesome being able to teach people how to brew great beer from the start!
KATHERINE (KAT) S RANDAZZO
Type of cuisine I like to cook:
My food tends to be pretty simple: I love creating full flavors from a few ingredients. I suppose my technique leans toward French and Italian. I’ve also spent a large portion of my career cooking fish and seafood.
Specialty:
This may sound crazy but something-from-nothing cooking. I love creating a delightful meal without shopping for a single ingredient. I always strive to get the very most from every ingredient and create the least amount of waste possible. (Not that I don’t enjoy the process of shopping for a meal, thinking and planning, I just derive a ton of satisfaction from the aforementioned approach).
Favorite kitchen tool:
A microplane — perfect for garlic, zest, cheese, nutmeg — I use it over and over throughout the course of cooking one meal.
Past & Present:
One afternoon when I was 7, I spent the day blanching, peeling and canning a couple bushels of tomatoes with my mom. With my legs dangling off the dishwasher and a paring knife in my hand I knew right there and then that I wanted to be in the kitchen. My enthusiastic love of food aside, the kitchen was the place I felt most comfortable and happy.
After high school I went to culinary school. While in school I began cooking for Tom Douglas in Seattle and I took to the line like a fish to water. I’m one of those idiots who loves the heat, intensity, urgency, and camaraderie of a professional kitchen. The sense of accomplishment after a long night cooking beautiful food is immensely satisfying.
9 years ago I moved to New York. I spent my first year at Aquagrill (paying my NYC dues) then ran to the warm embrace of Gramercy Tavern. I was there for a couple years before dabbling in catering (not for me). Finally, I gave up Manhattan for Brooklyn and haven’t looked back. I was a sous chef at Marlow & Sons and Diner right until my son was born. Since then I have been cooking for my family and a private client and have been teaching at Brooklyn Kitchen. I feel incredibly lucky to have such a nice balance of cooking and personal life with delicious meals at every turn.
TERRY HOPE ROMERO
Type of cuisine I like to cook:
Currently I’m all over Middle Eastern and Korean flavors. Salty preserved lemon, caramelized onion and bulgur mujaddara pilaf, and freshly ground coriander rock my world along with homemade kimchi and any kind of veggie bibimbap and all the noodles and rice cakes. I’m also obsessed with pizza and bake whenever I can.
Specialty:
If I can make it vegan, I’ll give it a shot, especially when it comes to hearty entrees. Vegan Latin American cuisine, hearty seitan tangines or curries and wholesome desserts are my usual projects.
Favorite kitchen tool:
A silicon spatula: hands down the best stirring device from hot pan to mixing bowl to table. I also use a wok nearly every day.
Past & Present:
I’ve written several vegan cookbooks in the past, a lot of them dessert focused, and a book focused on vegan Latin American cuisine (yes, it can be done!). My next big solo book, Vegan Eats World (out in November), is my spin on the international cookbooks of the past while going forward into the future, all vegan of course!
LOUISA SHAFIA
Type of cuisine I like to cook:
I’m fascinated by Persian cuisine. My father is from Iran, so I grew up eating ingredients like pomegranate syrup, pistachios, rose petals, saffron, and sumac. I like taking those flavors and making fresh, healthy recipes with whatever is in season at the farmer’s market.
Specialty:
Fesenjan, a Persian stew with a base of ground walnuts and pomegranates. My twist on the traditional recipe includes beets, which give the dish a strikingly bright red color. It’s made with chicken, but you can make it vegetarian. It’s sweet, sour, and savory. Served with fluffy rice and tangy yogurt, there’s no better meal than fesenjan.
Favorite kitchen tool:
Rubber spatula. It’s the only way to scrape every last bit of food out of hard-to-reach places like the bottom of a blender.
Past & Present:
Cooking is my third career. After working in public radio, including a stint editing the interview show “Fresh Air,” I moved to New York to pursue acting. Five years in, I wasn’t satisfied, and I searched my soul for what I wanted to do with my life. It dawned on me that I had always loved to cook, so I went to cooking school at the health-oriented Natural Gourmet Institute.
After graduating, I went to San Francisco to cook at the vegan restaurant Millennium, then came back to New York to work at Aquavit and help open Pure Food and Wine.
My concern for the environment led me to start an eco-friendly catering company, Lucid Food, with the goal of serving beautiful food from the farmer’s market while eliminating disposable waste through composting and recycling. My cookbook, Lucid Food: Cooking for an Eco-Conscious Life, comes directly out of the ideals of the catering company. Now, I’m writing a second cookbook about healthy Persian cuisine. I’m happy when I get to give people their very first taste of fresh pomegranate.
CONNIE K SUN
Type of cuisine I like to cook:
I have an insatiable curiosity for new foods and love making unexpected pairings of flavors, foods, and ideas from different parts of the world. In general, I cook dishes that are comforting yet bold, unexpected, and foremost delicious. I specialize in Chinese flavors because I learned my way around the kitchen from my maternal grandmother, who is from Shanghai. But over the years, have expanded repertoire to include understandings of food from various parts of Asia including Thailand and Japan.
Specialty:
Dumplings. One of the first things I learned to cook from my grandmother was dumplings. I have learned how to take the basis of her recipes and transform them into savory and sweet inventions.
Favorite kitchen tool:
Offset spatula — it can be used to do almost anything.
Past & Present:
I had been working as an interior designer for over ten years but had always found comfort and peace in the kitchen. I started exploring the possibility of a career in food by hosting elaborate dinners, teaching friends and their friends how to cook dumplings, and experimenting with recipes. This became more official when I was given the opportunity to start teaching classes at Brooklyn Kitchen. In 2009, I decided to take a huge risk and commit to working in the food industry full time. It wasn’t easy. I started from the bottom again, beginning as a line chef at Citicorps corporate kitchens and eventually worked my way through various roles. The experience proved to provide some of the best culinary schooling I could get and helped me forge some of the confidence I needed to start my own catering business, Bite Size Kitchen. There are no fairy tales here, it’s hard. Getting to do something you love takes commitment, but the pleasure of sharing food through teaching and cooking is so infinitely gratifying that I cannot go back to interior design.
MICHELLE N WARNER
Type of cuisine I like to cook:
I love cooking Mexican food. I lived in the southwest for 4 years and learned about Sonoran Mexican style cooking. Indian food is a close second. I always cook with an emphasis on spices and bold flavors.
Specialty:
Cooking with Cast Iron. A cast iron skillet is my “go to” kitchen tool. I love the history that comes with an old cast iron pan and the experiences you add to it every time you cook.
Favorite kitchen tool:
A wooden spoon spatula. I don’t want to stir with out it.
Past & Present:
I got into cooking as a second career when I was working as a set decorator for The Oprah Winfrey Show and ended up helping with food styling and prep for cooking shows. I decided to hang up my glue gun and go to culinary school to learn more about food. I wanted to teach people to cook at home more and eat out less.
After culinary school I moved to NYC where I began working in the Food Network Kitchens helping to test recipes and prep for cooking shows. I quickly fell in love with the Brooklyn Kitchen and the goal to get people learning more about food and becoming more comfortable cooking at home.
Now, I run the cooking school here. I know I’ve had a good day when people come back from a class they’ve taken to tell me proudly, about what they made at home!
DAVID SIEGEL
Type of cuisine I like to cook:
Seasonal, simple and ingredients driven food is what I like to cook most. I know, you’re tired of hearing that and think it’s just the faux-poetic musings of yet another hipster foodie. But it’s true! I decide what to make for dinner based on whatever happens to be in my fridge or what looks great at the store or Farmer’s Market. It’s easy, and I would love to show you how!
Specialty:
Braising, roasting chicken and working with fresh vegetables. I also love tinkering around with DIY projects at home – like making cheese and curing meats.
Favorite kitchen tool:
Wooden spoons, little off-set spatulas and patience.
Past & Present:
It all started with chicken soup, and my enthusiasm for creating delicious and satisfying meals for friends and family took off from there. I began working at restaurants while still in high school and then decided to study Hospitality Administration at Boston University. I cooked through college and continued slinging pots and pans in Boston after graduation.
I moved to Portland Oregon in 2005. Portland helped tune me in to the beauty of cooking simply with seasonal ingredients. Many off hours were spent at home, re-trying new techniques learned at work and building on that knowledge. I started the East Side Dining Club with friends and together we put on a series of pop-up dinner events. This led to my first executive chef position at the newly opened Belly Timber Restaurant.
I presided over the kitchen and a weekly-changing menu there for two years, but was beginning to miss the East Coast where I grew up. Before heading back though, I spent nearly a year traveling through Asia and Europe. I settled in Brooklyn near the end of 2010 and set to work connecting with the peerless food world of New York City. Since then, I have been working as a personal chef and teaching culinary classes.
KENNY LAO
Type of cuisine I like to cook:
I like to cook what’s fresh and in season. Cooking to bring out the
best natural flavors in every ingredient.
Specialty:
Making it look easy. This can be everyone’s specialty with a bit of misenplace.
Favorite kitchen tool:
Cast Iron Skillet hands down. But I have to say the Soda Stream was the biggest game changer that has entered my kitchen in the past few years.
Past & Present:
Kenny Lao, Co-Founder Rickshaw Dumpling Bar + Truck: Prior to opening Rickshaw, Kenny had vast restaurant industry experience providing consulting services to various well-known clients through Myriad Restaurant Group, as well as through independent consulting. He worked as Special Projects Director for Drew Nieporent’s Myriad
Restaurant Group (Tribeca Grill, Nobu, Next Door Nobu, Nobu London, Nobu 57, Centrico, and Rubicon– San Francisco) Additionally, Kenny oversaw the opening of multiple new restaurant establishments for clients such as Starwood’s W Hotel Brand, Sports Club/LA and Neiman Marcus. Kenny has deep experience in all components of the opening process including concept development, financial analysis, and reporting and forecasting. Additionally, he has worked with store designers, brand consultants and chefs, as well as with opening teams of management and staff and with managers on day to day operations post-opening. He has appeared on MTV: First Year, MARTHA, The Tyra Banks Show, The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch, Sundance Channel Biographies and has spoken at Inc Magazine, French Culinary, ICE, Johnson + Whales Culinary, Brown University and NYU Stern School of Business. Honors include: Crain’s 40 Under 40 in 2007, Inc Magazine 30 Under 30 Entrepreneurs in 2006, Tralee Ireland Sheep Sheering Contest, Second Place in 2004, Edible Sculpture Contest, Judge 2010.
Kenny holds an MBA from NYU Stern and a BA in International Relations from Brown University. He loves riding his bike, mangoes, watermelon, bacon and seltzer. He has been known to eat up to 40 dumplings in one sitting.
EMILY ACOSTA
Type of cuisine I like to cook:
I love cooking seasonally, simply, and with lots of cheese on top.
Specialty:
Getting everyone excited about the artisanal cheese movement and the magic that is cheese. As a cheesemonger, I’m also pretty good at cutting precise quarter and half pounds of cheese.
Favorite kitchen tool:
My iPhone! I love using Google and different apps to make ingredient lists and draw inspiration when I’m preparing a meal. It’s also fun to take artsy pictures of particularly well executed dishes or bountiful looking cheese plates to share with friends. Mostly to make them jealous.
Past & Present:
After graduating from business school and working in finance for a few years, my passion for food led me to pursue a Master’s Degree in Food Studies from NYU, where most of my research focused on the intersection between food, technology, and the arts. For the past few years, I have been working in the cheese biz, marveling at “milk’s leap towards immortality,” and taking in the historical and scientific aspects of this culturally significant food.
CARA NICOLETTI
Type of cuisine I look to cook:
Comfort food! Simple roasts, braises, soups, stews, and quick-breads (let’s be serious, it’s cake, but no one is going to look at you funny if you eat it first thing in the morning). I was raised by Italians and Russian Jews so I also have an affinity for both of those cuisines.
Specialty:
SAUSAGE-MAKING. Also, biscuits and donuts.
Favorite kitchen tool: At home my favorite kitchen tools are my cast-iron skillet and my bowl-scrapers. I cook almost everything in my cast-iron skillet, from meat dishes to breads and it never does me wrong. Bowl-scrapers are just a thin piece of plastic but they work in so many ways—they get every last bit of batter out of your bowl, help you portion bread dough, scoop ingredients, get under delicate pie crusts and clean your work surface.
Past & Present:
I grew up working in my grandfather’s butcher shop outside of Boston and came to New York in 2004 to study literature at NYU. I started working in restaurants and gravitated toward pastry because it seemed like a cleaner and more feminine alternative to what I grew up around. When the restaurants I was working in started getting whole animals I found myself interested in butchery again. I started interning at The Meat Hook in 2010 and eventually left my life as a pastry-chef behind to work there full time. I am also currently writing a book based on my literary food blog, “Yummy Books.” It will be published by Little, Brown next year!
