Fall/Winter 2019 Alumni News

Mashama Bailey was recently featured on Netflix’s Chef’s Table; she won the James Beard Award for the best chef of the Southeast and her restaurant the Grey was named one of Food & Wines magazine’s best restaurants.

Franklin Biggs Chef and instructor, holds weekly classes at Sur la Table in Birmingham Alabama. He also offers classes for unemployed people in the East Lake neighbourhood at Peer Inc.

Amanda Hesser with fellow co-founder Merrill Stubbs, have sold a majority stake of Food 52 to venture firm TCG for $83 million.

Tanya Holland with her restaurant brand Brown Sugar Kitchen opened a flagship location in downtown Oakland, California in February 2019. She also launched a counter service takeout in the San Francisco Ferry Building.  

Nicole Quessenberry Litvack has started a culinary consulting business where she helps aspiring cookbook authors make their dreams a reality. She manages everything from proposal development, ghost writing and editing to recipe development. She’s just completed work on The Mexican Keto Cookbook for holistic nutritionist Torie Borrelli.

Susan Herrmann Loomis and her cooking school, On Rue Tatin, are offering classes in France, in California, and Maine.

Cynthia Nims is a writer and cooking teacher who, instructs classes on Craftsy. She now on the board of Tilth Alliance, a non-profit organic gardening and urban ecology organization offering classes and learning gardens and farms.

John McReynolds is the executive chef and culinary director of Stone Edge farm estate vineyards and winery. John’s book The Stone Edge Farm Kitchen Larder Cookbook, was published by Rizzoli International Publications in April 2019

Steven Raichlen is the star and producer the PBS television series, Project Fire, now in its second season.

Molly Stevens is a freelance cooking instructor, cookbook author and editor. Her a new book All about dinner: Simple Meals, will be published in November 2019.

Marjorie Taylor and her daughter Kendall Smith Franchini, run a cooking school and shop in Beaune inspired their cookbook The Cook’s Atelier, which won ICAP award in Food Photography and Styling and Design.

Tina Ujlaki has joined the Jury for the Julia Child Award; she was most recently Executive Editor of Food & Wine.

Virginia Willis is part of both the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Blue Ribbon Task Force and of the Atlantic Community Food Bank Advisory board.

Kelsey Youngman a former La Varenne intern, is now the Associate Food Editor at Food & Wine magazine.

Fall/Winter 2018 Alumni News

Alex Guarnaschelli is the executive chef and Food Network star, is a special judge on Chopped and executive chef of Butter restaurant in Midtown, New York.

Amanda Hesser is the cofounder of the food community Food 52.

Anna Watson Carl is a writer for Delish.com, Writes a dinner party column for Saveur.com and Owner of The Yellow Table.

Cynthia Nims writes for the Seattle Magazine, where her most recent article “Meet the new wave of female farmers” was published in June.

Faye Levy is a columnist and writer, with her husband, Yakir she is a culinary columnist of The Jerusalem Post since 1990. In February Faye was a judge at the Jewish Bread and Salt Cooking Contest.

Franklin Biggs is the Savoury Chef Instructor, at the Sur La Table in Birmingham Alabama. He is a Board Member, Volunteer and Consultant at the Pepper Place farmers market, which is Birmingham’s most popular farmers market. At Peer Inc he is a Chef trainer and Consultant. Most recently he has been appointed a Friend Chef at the East Lake United Methodist Church.

Jessica Battilana’s new book “Repertoire: All the Recipes You Need”, was released in April. Her recipes are listed in several publications including: Here and Now, Market Place and the San Francisco Chronicles. In Maine, Jessica is hosting cooking classes in the Summer.

John McReynolds is the Culinary Director at Stone Edge Farm, Sonoma CA.

Jonathan Waxman is a judge on Bravo’s Deception and starred in two seasons of Top Chef Masters. This year he is appearing at the Aspen Food and Wine Classic festival in June, and the Music City Food and Wine festival in Nashville in September.

Kate Krader is a restaurant editor, and writer for Bloomberg, software company. Her most recent article: “With recipes, the key to making millions is not about the food”, was published in May.

Linda Collister is a cook and baker and has written several well-known baking cook books including “The Great British Book of Baking” and “The Great British Bake Off”. Her new book is due to be released in August called The Great British Bake Off: Get baking for friends and family”.

Molly Stevens’s cooking classes continue to be a success, promoted on Craftsy and are in the following locations:  Richmond, Vermont, and Maine.

Marah Stets is a bestselling cookbook co-author and editor with two books released this year: her most recent books are: “Magnolia table”, by Joanna Gaines (William Morrow), and “Julep: Southern Cocktails Refashioned”, (Alba Huerta).

Nathan Myhrvold won the Jan Grigson Award for his book the Modernist Bread, at the IACP awards in February. The book shows the revolutionary staples of the human diet.

Nathalie Dupree’s most recent post entitled “What dish would you bring to the slow food potluck this Sunday?”. Was published in June by The Charleston Post Courier.

In the fall Natalie will make several appearances in South Carolina including: “Southern Seasons” Book signings in Mt Pleasant, SC.

Nina Simonds writes for the Boston Globe and is a contributor to the New York Times Travel Section.

Roscoe Betsill divides his time between New York City and the Hudson Valley, freelancing as a food stylist, table top prop stylist and a recipe developer.

Steven Raichlen’s new book stems from his TV Series “Project Fire”, an on set and off-road field trip that involves revolutionary new techniques that invigorate the backyard barbeque from ember roasting and slab grilling to fire heated iron and high-tech rotisseries. His show has featured on: AT & T, British American Comm, Broadcast/On the air TV and Frontier TV. Etc.  In the summer Steven teaches classes at the Broadmoor resort in Colorado Springs.

Susan Hermann Loomis’s most recent book was launched in June, called “The French Grill – 150 refined & rustic recipes.”  Susan is the inspiration of the cooking school “On Rue Tatin” with classes in Paris and Louvers, Normandy.

Tamie Cook attended the Lodge gave a cooking demonstration together with Cynthia Grayson in April at the 22^nd Annual National Cornbread Festival.

Tanya Holland This past December Tanya was on Top Chef and is the Owner of Brown Sugar Kitchen, soul food in Oakland, CA. In April, Tanya appeared on the Golden State Warriors YouTube video “Our strength comes from you”, where she touched on her childhood memories and how her kitchen has broken down barriers which she has faced in the industry.

Virginia Willis’s new book “The Secrets of the Southern Table”, was released in June and she is taking it on the road in Georgia, Florida, Maine Virginia, and Massachusetts.

The May’s issue of People Magazine featured, her recipe for Buttermilk Pound cake with Roast Strawberries.

Caroline Wright has been busy… on Food 52 she has developed a recipe for her next birthday cake, her current projects show up on her website, and her blog, The Wright Recipes, has just been relaunched.

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