Andrea is a classically trained chef from New York City. After obtaining a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and working as a legal assistant at Sullivan & Cromwell with plans of going to law school, the author made a career shift and decided to go to culinary school instead. She graduated from The French Culinary Institute in Lower Manhattan. After graduation, she cooked in New York as a line chef, taught cooking classes, catered, tested recipes, managed a restaurant, and was the general manager of a cooking school in TriBeCa.
Her very first job out of culinary school was as a line chef at a well-established literary club in Midtown. Other than her coveted internship at the legendary Montrachet, she had very little actual restaurant cooking experience. The author credits Chef Jacques, her mentor chef at French Culinary, for strongly encouraging her to go speak with a chef who just got hired at this club. He was a French-Middle Eastern man, known for his fusion of flavors and impeccable skill. She was intrigued and desperate, so she went.
Like many new graduates in any profession, the author was confident but unqualified. There she was, a young blonde girl with a B.A. in political science and fresh out of culinary school ready to start her career.
She loved almost the whole experience: the challenging work, the sweat, the people, the camaraderie, the pressure, the energy, the endless opportunities for creativity, and the sense of accomplishment they felt when something went well.
She didn’t much care for the burns, the cuts, the bits of sexism that can permeate a kitchen, and she got tired of making rice pudding. But she also came to love the chef and the two chefs who followed him there. She thinks they all came to respect her. She loved her four years at the club: they were long years, but she misses them every day.
She started this blog for a few reasons: because people always ask her cooking questions; because people encouraged her; because she wanted a way to journal her recipes; and because she hopes one day her boys, who both LOVE food, will enjoy it too.