I started my formal culinary career in the fall of 1990 as an American Culinary Federation apprentice at Atlanta’s Le Petite Auberge under Chef Wolfgang Gropp. After receiving my certificate in 1993, I accepted a position at the famed Le Clos at Chateau Elan with French Master Chef Bernard Goupy.
“Tom Tom a Bistro” was my next stop, working under the tutelage of Certified Master Chef Thomas Catherall and Chef Ian Winslade. Following the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics I migrated north and became Sous Chef at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
The following year, at the age of 27, I reopened a newly renovated museum facility and managed three food outlets as Chef de Cuisine. In the fall of 1997 I worked a six month line cook contract with celebrity Chef Jodi Adams followed by a year-long stint as Executive Sous Chef at Hotel Wheatleigh in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts.
In October of 1999 I migrated back south and accepted my first Executive Chef position at the third oldest golf club in the nation, Glen Arven Country Club in Thomasville, Georgia. I remained at Glen Arven for three years during which time I chaired as an American Culinary Federation Chapter President and moonlighted as Assistant Chef Instructor at the Capital Culinary Institute.
In November 2003, with a growing desire to teach and see the west, I enrolled at Le Cordon Bleu School in Portland, Oregon and in the spring of 2005 I hired-on at Andina, a novo-styled Peruvian restaurant as Sous Chef.
In December 2005, with two months of school left to go, I became the Executive Chef of Andina whereupon the restaurant was awarded The Oregonian’s 2005 restaurant of the year.
I and my wife, Micaela, moved to Port Townsend in the winter of 2006 where our dreams of a sustainable farm to table business took root in the form of Cultivated Palette Catering. In 2008, Micaela and I built a mobile kitchen that served local foods at the Port Townsend Farmer’s Market and in December of that same year launched Brassica Restaurant.
In January 2011, we opened a 1250 sqft. Catering Kitchen/teaching facility at 1433 Sims Way in Port Townsend and in June I accepted the Food service director position at our local hospital with the goal of changing the way folks eat.
I’m a farm girl, horticulturalist, and seeds specialist. I bring my green thumb and connection to most of the area’s growers to Brassica. After several years of working on organic farms in Oregon and California, I earned my Master’s degree in Horticulture from Oregon State University.
I managed the Seeds of Change Research Farm and Bulk Seed Program in central New Mexico for seven years during which time I conducted extensive seed research variety trials. From this experience I gained a great appreciation for interesting vegetable, herb and flower varieties which we hope is apparent in Brassica’s diverse palette of flavorful and beautiful ingredients.
Currently, I am the Program Director for Organic Seed Alliance, a non-profit with the mission of “the ethical development and stewardship of seed”. As for the restaurant, I grow specialty vegetables, greens, herbs and flowers in the family garden and direct all business details at Brassica.