Who is The Experimental Gourmand

The Experimental Gourmand was created by me, Kathy Blake, in 2005 reflecting my love of cooking and recipes, exploring the food markets of New York City and abroad, and venturing out to local events to check out the latest tastes and trends, writing about them on this site and for local publications.  For many years, I covered the best of the local NYC food entrepreneurial scene, highlighted the bounty of the local farmers’ markets, gave delicious ideas for what to do with all of that gorgeous produce that you bought, and shared the kitchen tips and recipes that I gathered from growing up in Virginia as well as my years living in England, Italy, and France. 

I then took the leap and enrolled in the International Culinary Center/French Culinary Institute for formal culinary training in classic French cooking techniques.  Since then, I have created food and beverage menus for well-respected catering companies, developed recipes for local brands, led hospitality operations projects at multi-million dollar companies, and tested and edited recipes for cookbooks.  I've worked as with private clients, restaurants, high-end large-volume catering companies as well as in multi-unit enterprises, both on the cooking production and on the management sides.  My hybrid culinary operations and hospitality technology background has enabled me to amass a range of industry expertise and insights to bring to your business development, food and beverage menu, and content writing and editing projects. 

Click on the Work With Me tab to find out more about hiring me for Culinary Consulting; Menu and Recipe Development & Data Management; and Food Writing, Editing, Proofreading projects. Reach out via the Contact Form in the sidebar on the right to discuss how we might be able to work together.