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]

 

 

​

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)

Poire Belle Helene

 

Poire Belle Helene

I remember my mother’s homemade chocolate sauce very well. She didn’t make it all that often, usually also around the time that she would make homemade ice cream. The taste of it is, however, firmly imprinted on the part of my brain that stores childhood food memories. There’s only been a few times that I’ve eaten another product that even came close to the same thing. Slickepott Fudge Sauce is one of these.

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.

Chocolate-Covered Sea Salt Cashew Toffee

 

Sea Salt Cashew Toffee

This recipe was originally created in 2011 for Nuts+Nuts and published on their website as well as on The Experimental Gourmand.   

I first got to know Cyrilla Suwarsa, co-founder of Nuts+Nuts, at the New Amsterdam Holiday Market back in December.  She was there selling the farm-direct gourmet cashews that her company imports from farmers in Indonesia, her home country.  When I tasted her cashews, I was instantly struck by how flavorful and meaty they seemed.  She explained that this is because the Indonesian kind is a different variety from the ones that are usually available from South America and are typically found in the U.S. 

Coconut-Citrus Chicken Skewers

 Coconut-Citrus Chicken Skewers

This recipe was originally created in 2011 for Schoolhouse Kitchen and published on their website as well as on The Experimental Gourmand.  This company has since gone out of business.

Last month, when I was at the Fancy Food Show, I had a chance to check out a few new products in Schoolhouse Kitchen‘s range.  Their new Coconut Citrus Vinaigrette is a fantastic addition to their product line.  It is deeply flavorful with a smooth texture from the coconut milk, a dash of spice from the curry, and a zing of citrus shining throughout.  The tastes are all so well balanced and would be perfect for drizzling over a salad of seasonal summer greens.  For me, this brought back memories of eating Thai Chicken Skewers when out with friends.  

Vegetable and Tofu Stir Fry with Rice Noodles for Oxo & Plated Contest

 

Vegetable and Tofu Stir Fry with Noodles 

 
I’ve been a big fan of Oxo‘s kitchen tools, which make my life much easier in the kitchen.  Their vegetable peeler was my constant companion during culinary school, and comes with me to every catering gig as part of my standard toolkit (where it is borrowed on a regular basis).  When I received an email asking for recipe suggestions for using a selection of their utensils as part of a contest sponsored by Oxo and Plated, a meal delivery service, I knew that I wanted to take part in it, squeezing it into my busy working chef schedule.

Updates to The Experimental Gourmand

Moving on from the old (right) to the new (left) 

Long time readers of this website might have wondered what is going on, as the format and design seem to have gone a bit retro recently.  Tech things, is the short answer.  Much like the suitcases, in the photo above, my trusty website that I build years ago, has frays and cracks and basically crashed due to incompatibility with newer systems.  So, like the suitcase on the left, I decided to move on to something similar, but sleeker.  Fortunately, I'm able to build on a really old Blogger site that I used to have, which was still active but out of date.