Foodie Interviews

Interviews with food professionals

Jill Orent

  Jill Kreutzer Orent is a seasoned executive and industry expert in home products, specializing in product development and marketing for small kitchen appliances. She began her career in retail at Bloomingdale’s, where she held merchandising and buying roles before expanding her experience into the watch industry. Jill went on to build a distinguished leadership career, serving as Senior Vice President of Marketing at Cuisinart, Vice President at Groupe SEB—home to brands including All-Clad, Krups, and T-fal—and then currently Vice President, Global Small Appliances at The Cookware Company, makers of GreenPan, GreenLife, and Blue Diamond. Currently, she's the President of Les Dames d'Escoffier’s New York chapter, deeply committed to mentorship [...]

By |2026-05-12T11:51:24-04:00May 10th, 2026|Big Apple Life, Foodie Interviews, NYC Restaurant Reviews|1 Comment
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May Matta-Aliah

May Matta-Aliah is Lebanese by birth, but has called New York home for the last 30 years. With two decades of wine education under her belt, May is happiest when swirling, sipping and sharing her love of all things wine. She's racked up an impressive list of wine certifications and has represented numerous wine regions as an Educational Ambassador through her company, In the Grape. May is a Dame, a member of Les Dames d'Escoffier New York (LDNY), just like me. We've worked together on various events and enjoyed some leisure activities outside the organization, including pickleball. I was able to get her to take a break from her busy [...]

By |2025-11-19T08:11:39-05:00November 18th, 2025|Big Apple Life, Foodie Interviews, NYC Restaurant Reviews|0 Comments
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Bobbie Lloyd

What New Yorker isn't familiar with Magnolia Bakery? That small corner shop in New York's West Village has become a global phenomenon, now boasting 46 stores worldwide. This success is largely due to Bobbie Lloyd, their incredible CEO and Chief Baking Officer. I had the pleasure of meeting Bobbie when she joined Les Dames d'Escoffier New York (LDNY) and attended our annual conference in Phoenix, where all the New York Dames hung out. I learned that she has had a fascinating career; she served as Calvin Klein's private chef after finishing culinary school and then approached Danny Meyer at the original Union Square Cafe, where she started as a waiter. [...]

By |2025-05-10T06:59:51-04:00May 10th, 2025|Big Apple Life, City Bites, Foodie Interviews, NYC Best Bites, NYC Restaurant Reviews|0 Comments
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Dan Leader

Daniel Leader may not be a household, but Bread Alone, his family organic bakery might be. The bakery, which began in the 80s, sold wood-fired loaves at their Catskills bakery. They currently do so through farmers markets in the area. Their fermentation process creates bread that is "better for you, tastes great and lasts plenty long—without preservatives." Dan is a James Beard Award-winning visionary, whose groundbreaking books Bread Alone and Local Breads are both IACP Award winners. His 2019 book, Living Bread, brought home a James Beard Award. He's just published A Slow Rise: Favorite Recipes from Four Decades of Baking with Heart by Daniel Leader with Lauren Chattman. The heart [...]

By |2025-03-22T07:15:54-04:00March 21st, 2025|Big Apple Life, Foodie Interviews, NYC Restaurant Reviews, xyz misc|0 Comments
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Raeanne Sarazen

I met the amazing Raeanne Sarazen, a newbie Dame, at the then-annual Les Dames d'Escoffier conference in Phoenix last fall. She—like me—is a registered dietitian. She's also a classically trained chef, food writer, editor and consultant. Her first book, The Complete Recipe Writing Guide: Mastering Recipe Development, Writing, Testing, Nutrition Analysis, and Food Styling, a "one-stop resource for developing, writing and producing recipe content for print, digital and social media platforms," was honored by the International Association of Culinary Professionals with the 2024 book award in the reference & technical category. Having spent most of my life writing recipes, I applaud her book's comprehensive guides. Her book is a master [...]

By |2025-01-27T16:29:09-05:00January 27th, 2025|Big Apple Life, Foodie Interviews, NYC Restaurant Reviews|0 Comments
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Jane Bertch

Earlier this month, I reintroduced my Guest Foodie column and its interview that acquaints you with the thoughts, insights and achievements of people in or related to the food industry. Today's story is about Jane Bertch, my American-Parisian friend, the impressive Dame who started our Paris chapter of Les Dames d'Escoffier. At that time, I was serving on the international board of the philanthropic group as a chapter board liaison to many chapters. We met in Paris. Jane started her career in finance, moving from the corporate world to the entrepreneurial one. In 2009, she founded La Cuisine Paris. Just this year, she authored a book about starting that school. Specifically, [...]

By |2024-08-02T09:44:10-04:00July 30th, 2024|Big Apple Life, Foodie Interviews, NYC Restaurant Reviews|0 Comments
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Julie Hartigan: A Return of my Guest Foodie Column

I introduced my Guest Foodie column on July 10, 2012, twelve years ago today. Over the next seven years, it provided insight into the points of view of almost 90 of the country’s top foodies — people who made a living in the field. I'm not sure why, but I stopped writing it. With this post on my friend and fellow Dame (a member of Les Dames d'Escoffier) Julie Hartigan, I'm resurrecting that fun interview with those in the food universe—food editors, authors, chefs, restaurateurs, cooking school instructors, bloggers, and more. We met when Julie volunteered to assist at The Next Big Bite, a fund-raiser I did for the New [...]

By |2024-07-10T07:08:27-04:00July 10th, 2024|Big Apple Life, Foodie Interviews, NYC Best Bites, NYC Restaurant Reviews|0 Comments
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Shopping at Union Square Market with Chef Charlie Marshal

What fun it would be, I thought, to shop at the farmers' market with a chef! I did so recently with Charlie Marshal (The Marshal). We decided to meet at Union Square Greenmarket early one April Saturday morning. That market began with just a few farmers in 1976 and has grown to about 140 regional farmers, fishers and bakers selling their products four times a week. Charlie visits on Saturday mornings. These farmers are like friends, as Charlie has been shopping at the market for ten years! His secrets: Charlie ordered ahead and gets wholesale prices; otherwise, he mentioned, he couldn't afford to shop here and pass the costs to [...]

By |2023-06-03T11:44:29-04:00June 4th, 2023|Big Apple Life, City Bites, Foodie Interviews, NYC Best Bites, Other happenings|0 Comments
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Chadwick Boyd

For our visit, Chadwick Boyd whipped up a batch of biscuits and served them warm with salted butter and grapefruit-thyme jam. This month, you can catch him making these quick breads on the big (AKA movie) screen in "Reel Food," his 4-minute cooking and entertaining segment that precedes the trailers in many theaters nationwide. Screenvision Media launched this series last fall, with each episode running a 4-week cycle. They've already commissioned Chadwick through June. Smart idea for sure, encouraging moviegoers to get there early enough to catch the pre-entertainment show. While spreading some jam on the tender biscuits, I learned that Chadwick helps organize International Biscuit Festival. How fitting, I [...]

By |2017-09-03T09:44:28-04:00March 28th, 2017|Foodie Interviews|0 Comments
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Suzen O’Rourke

Suzi O’Rourke was ahead of her time. In the 80s, she created a cooking club where she sent kitchen-tested recipes to friends, saying the first one to respond got their choice of which to make! Her dinner parties were such a success she ended up with a waiting list of friends wanting to attend. She then realized she might have just have a business concept — Cooking by The Book was born. That business — located in Tribeca — morphed from those dinners into a culinary corporate team building experience. Suzi's clients from Fortune 1000 companies learn to work together in her new state-of-the-art equipped kitchen and dining room. Suzi [...]

By |2017-09-03T11:35:14-04:00March 1st, 2017|Foodie Interviews|0 Comments
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Cathy Cochran-Lewis

I recently reconnected with Austin-based Cathy Cochran-Lewis, the global marketing programs coordinator for Whole Foods, when I was headed to her city for a mini-sibling vacation. I wanted to pick her brain about where to eat, knowing she'd have fabulous recommendations as she's so involved in her city's culinary activities. When we spoke, Cathy reminded me that we first met at the Greenbrier resort (West Virginia) at the then Symposium for Professional Food Writers where she also first met Julia, as Julia and I were both presenters. Our paths have crossed umpteen times since then. We both served on the board of the International Association of Culinary Professionals; she served [...]

By |2017-09-03T11:31:57-04:00February 8th, 2017|Foodie Interviews|0 Comments
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Nathalie Dupree

I met Nathalie Dupree — a multi-talented food professional — many decades ago in Ashville, North Carolina on a chicken original (3074) trip. That was when the then National Chicken Council hosted food editors on yearly press trips to teach us about the industry. Nathalie actually got married during one of those trips, as I and two other editors stood up for her as her bridesmaids on the beach in Jamaica. Best known for her approachability and her understanding of Southern fare, Nathalie is a best-selling author with 14 cookbooks and more than 300 television shows. She's a productive food professional having been the Founding Chairman of the [...]

By |2017-09-03T11:34:05-04:00January 3rd, 2017|Foodie Interviews|2 Comments
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Florence Fabricant

If you're a New York Times reader, you'll recognize the name Florence Fabricant. She's one of their longtime food and wine writers, who contributes the weekly Front Burner and Off the Menu columns. We first met at a table on the ocean-view terrace of Beechwood (Astor) Mansion in Newport, RI with Jeremiah Tower and his crew on the lawn grilling our lunch. It was an Ocean Spray cranberry event in the 80s. Florence has written 12 cookbooks, including The New York Times Dessert Cookbook (St. Martins Press), The New York Restaurant Cookbook (Rizzoli) and The New York Times Seafood Cookbook (St. Martins Press). Now that I'm a full-time New Yorker, [...]

By |2017-09-03T11:39:08-04:00November 25th, 2016|Foodie Interviews|0 Comments
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Devin Alexander

When 15-year old Devin Alexander tipped the scale at 200 pounds, she decided to do something about it. By the time Devin left for Smith College she had trimmed down. Devin has maintained her own 70-pound weight loss for over 20 years, turning the nondeprivational way she did so into her successful career. Devin lives and eats her message —  you don’t have to deprive yourself to be fit and healthy. Devin is the author of 8 cookbooks including “The Biggest Loser Cookbook” Series and “The Most Decadent Diet Ever." She's appeared on numerous national TV shows and has been featured in magazines, including Prevention, Men’s Health and Shape. Today, [...]

By |2017-09-03T11:41:21-04:00August 29th, 2016|Foodie Interviews|0 Comments
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Alison Awerbuch

Alison Awerbuch grew up in a home where her mom read Gourmet and enjoyed entertaining — creating a menu, setting the ??????????????? stage, preparing the food and serving it with style. This upbringing planted the seeds that grew into her catering career. It wasn't, though, until half way through college that she realized those passions. She finished college with a business degree then headed to the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) for another. Her first job was at Abigail Kirsch, then a small catering company in Westchester. More than 25 years later, Alison is still with the company — only now she's a partner, running and expanding the [...]

By |2017-09-03T11:41:32-04:00August 15th, 2016|Foodie Interviews|0 Comments
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Maria Loi

When Maria Loi and I met in 2013 on a French wine crawl that stopped at her then Upper West Side eponymous restaurant, she mentioned that she felt we'd met before. After chitchatting, we discovered that we actually may have met in the 70s on the Greek isle of Hyra! I stopped by her year-old restaurant Loi Estiatorio in Manhattan — where she's the executive chef — recently to learn more about her beginnings. I knew she had written more than 35 cookbooks (including Ancient Dining, the official cookbook for the 2004 Olympic Games and her most recent The Greek Diet HarperCollins 2014), cooked for President Obama at the White [...]

By |2017-09-03T13:11:39-04:00July 18th, 2016|Foodie Interviews|0 Comments
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David Bonom

You may not recognize him, but David Bonom is the face behind many of recipes you might use. He develops these creations Marge Perry David Bonom Love, Lobster, Strawberry Cupcakes Cookbook for myriad food companies and — along with his food-writing wife Marge Perry — has a regular column in Rachel Ray Every Day. If  you're one of those who can't sleep, you might catch him cooking on ABC's World News Now, an overnight television news program airing during the wee hours. David and I met umpteen years ago at one of the many press events we both attended. With me as his agent, we also worked together for [...]

By |2017-09-03T11:47:10-04:00July 3rd, 2016|Foodie Interviews|1 Comment
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Sara Moulton

My first memory of meeting the talented Sara Moulton was at the Good Morning America set in the 90s. She was working in the GMA kitchen as their executive chef prepping for the food segments; I was appearing in my inaugural network spot to promote Rice, my first cookbook. We worked together many times after that as I did numerous GMA food trend segments. Our paths would then cross on press trips or at media events, as the food community during that era was quite small. But Sara's food career began long before her GMA days when she was associate chef for Julia's Julia Child & More Company TV show [...]

By |2017-09-03T13:11:49-04:00June 5th, 2016|Foodie Interviews|0 Comments
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Darra Goldstein

I ran into Darra Goldstein recently at the James Beard Foundation Media awards; I was a judge and her latest book was nominated. Funny, as we first connected long, long ago when I — as a newspaper food editor — judged the then Tastemaker Awards and her first cookbook A Taste of Russia, was nominated for that award. Darra and I later met at a Stolichnaya vodka event at The Russian Tea room when she was consulting for the restaurant and a spokesperson for the vodka. I recall her teaching us how to chug that libation while keeping a clear head. Be sure to first have some bread slathered in butter!  [...]

By |2017-09-03T11:50:19-04:00May 22nd, 2016|Foodie Interviews|0 Comments
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Kerry Heffernan

I first met Kerry Heffernan when he was the executive chef of South Gate, which at that time was at the Jumeirah Essex House; today it's a Marriott. Sadly, I missed him cooking at Eleven Madison, where he had opened that restaurant as Executive Chef and eventually become a partner before heading to South Gate. Kerry is currently chef at Grand Banks, the seasonal oyster bar and galley on the deck of the Sherman Zwicker, an historic cod fishing schooner moored at Pier 25 New York. The floating "oyster barges" that lined Manhattan's waterfront in the 18th and 19th centuries inspired this restaurant that serves up sustainably harvested oysters, ingredient-driven [...]

By |2017-09-03T11:50:24-04:00April 10th, 2016|Foodie Interviews|0 Comments
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