Meet the Culinary Canary

The Grits of My Southern Culinary Education...

I was raised in the South and learned to cook with ingredients native to the Virginia countryside. I used to help my great-grandmother cook traditional Southern dishes like spoonbread and put up all types of pickles, jams, and jellies. My weekends were spent on the Chesapeake Bay netting Blue Crabs off the pylons of the docks and getting sun-burnt with my little brother.

Finding Passion in the Kitchen

Later I attended Virginia Commonwealth University and studied English, but I always knew that my true passion was for food. I've tended bar and worked the line for the last few years, most notably at Patina Grill in Richmond, VA. After working my way up through the ranks of Virginia restaurants, I moved to New York City to learn classic French technique at the French Culinary Institute. I live in Brooklyn with my boyfriend Kjell and our cat Millie.

When I'm not cooking, you can find me trying to grow plants on my patio (a losing battle), shaking up a mean cocktail for friends, wandering through the Greenmarkets trying to find local ingredients, or exploring the dive bars of NYC.