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.

Culinary Consulting

Tap into my culinary background as an event planner, caterer, and chef manager, working with food stylists and prominent chefs, designing menus and creating recipes for a variety of events and occasions.

 

I’ve done cookbook recipe testing, plating for menu and cookbook photo shoots, interactive chef demonstrations, beer and wine pourings and pairings, and on-site prep for gatherings large and small from dinners at the James Beard House to buffet-style get togethers at private residences and culinary charity activities.

 

I've written, edited, and/or tested literally thousands of recipes, developing comprehensive and complex seasonal menus to pitch to clients for gala dinners and all-day conferences as well as for smaller, intimate events.  I can work with you to create dishes for specific themed gatherings, like Oktoberfest, Summer Barbecues, Holiday Cocktail Parties, and St. Patrick's Day, in addition to drawing up plating guides and steps of service for the actual day for the on-site catering team to create raves from your guests. 

 

Reach out to me via the Contact Me section in the right hand sidebar to discuss how we might work together to design your next event, cookbook, video series, television show or other culinary project.

 

Menu & Recipe Systems Data Management

Much of my time working in the hospitality industry has been on-site in culinary operational roles, figuring out how to get things to work the way they need to so that business can move forward and then to put systems and processes in place to capture efficiencies and generally to get things to work better for the company, employees, and clients, saving time and money, and minimizing frustration along the way.   

Reach out to me via the Contact Form in the right hand sidebar if you are looking to organize and streamline your on-line recipe and ingredient management and operations to better capture menu information, inventory, food and beverage costs, and product usage.  

I have worked with the following SaaS programs and written company-specific SOPs, user guides, and employee training materials with details as to how to implement and maintain these systems as business grows and needs to scale, saving money and keeping headcount manageable.  That said, my project management processes are designed to fit whatever system you are looking to implement for your business.

• CaterXpert
• MarginEdge
• CrunchTime!

We can analyze your current operations, look at where there might be service and needs gaps, and create a plan to implement improvements where needed.  I've been on the ground, sleeves rolled up, setting up new management systems from scratch and cataloguing and taking inventory of back stock for food, controllable, disposables, and beverages items, working with vendors and suppliers to improve the company's supply chain and to improve forecasts. 

Food Writing, Editing, Proofreading

I have written, proofread, and edited thousands of recipes in all formats and for many kinds of publications and usage, reviewed cookbooks and tested their recipes, and have developed custom, event specific menus for clients.  In addition to creating and testing recipes, I covered the local NYC food events scene on this website for many years and wrote content for other award-winning websites and publications.  Some of my photos were also published on these websites.  

 

Below are links to a few samples of my published writing.  Unless otherwise attributed, I also took the accompanying photos which you can see in these articles.  You can also check out my Instagram feed for other event and dining out photos.  

 

Get in touch with me via the Contact Form in the right hand sidebar if you would like to discuss a content development, writing or editing project on which we can work.

 [photo from the NYC Chocolate Show; article in Woman Around Town]

 

 

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Tanzen Dame Dry Riesling Release (published on Foodie Link)

Review of Kaia Wine Bar (published on Women Around Town)

Meatpacking Uncorked at NYC Wine & Food Festival (published on Women Around Town)

Chile con Queso for Super Bowl Sunday

 

Chile con Queso 

 

This is a recipe that I developed for Brooklyn Salsa Company using their Brooklyn Salsa product. They seem not to be in business as of 2025.

It might sound a bit naff, but I really like the Tex-Mex classics, even though I know that they might not represent authentic Mexican cuisine, which I also do enjoy.  They were the way that I first learned about these flavors, which were completely foreign to my generic 1970s-80s upbringing.  One of the things I probably first ate was Chile con Queso.  I used to love to order it when we went out, but I never seem to do so now.