Hi, I’m Jeffrey! I’ve loved cooking and food ever since I can remember. Some of my earliest memories of cooking were of waking up early Saturday mornings to make coffeecake for my family when I was 8. As a teen, both of my parents worked, so I was in charge of cooking the side dishes and reheating the frozen main dishes mom had batch-cooked on the weekends. When Christmas neared, my grandma taught me the delicate process of making Swedish cardamom loaves, a smell forever ingrained in me.
That’s what eating great food does – it permeates our minds and we can often picture the laughs and the smiles of the people with whom we shared that meal. The smell of cardamom lands me back in Grandma’s kitchen, a whiff of dill puts me back in my friend’s garden, where we ate fresh herbs right off the plant. We all have foods we cherish because of the associative memories we carry. I hope I can recall some familiar flashbacks for you and create some new ones as well.
Though I have worked in and out of the food industry since I was 15, I became serious about cooking in 2012 when I moved to NYC and attended the Natural Gourmet Institute. I worked in various restaurants for five years (Hu Kitchen, Pickle Shack, Narcissa), eventually becoming a sous chef on the opening team for Jean-George Vongerichten’s abcV restaurant. Working at such a high level with the finest locally-farmed and foraged ingredients taught me to appreciate food in a way I never had before. It was truly a cut above and it has heavily influenced the way I approach cooking today.
Quality food starts with quality ingredients and I source only the finest products. I regularly scour the farmer’s markets to find the best local produce and proteins available in NYC. I only use responsibly-sourced seafood (never farmed) and meat that has been pasture-raised. As for produce, I rely on the vast number of local farms for the bulk of what I cook. Supporting smaller farmers is something I consider vital to the long-term sustainability of our food chain and I’m happy to know many of them personally.
I became drawn to the personalized service and attention I could provide to individuals, especially those struggling with various health issues. The kinds of people I work with understand and appreciate fine dining, clean flavors, and a personalized approach to food. They’re also open to experiencing something a little different: a pop of unexpected flavor here, an unknown spice there. I hope I can share my love and knowledge of food with you. To learn more about what services I provide, check out my Services page.
Inside Scoop:
– Favorite ingredients: finishing salts (I usually have at least a dozen on hand), farm eggs, mushrooms
– Most important kitchen tools: my hands, my knife, and my work-ethic.
– What I listen to while I cook: I’m a big podcast and comedy fan
– Hobbies outside of cooking: Russian literature/translation, reading, learning new languages, balcony gardening, board games, traveling
– If I could have any job other than cooking: Sailing or Scuba instructor