Susan Baldassano, Chef’s Training Program Education Director is a graduate of the Natural Gourmet Apprenticeship Program (1987) and Institute of Culinary Education (2004) was co-chef of the Natural Gourmet's Home Food Service during 1988-1989 and head chef at Angelica Kitchen and Whole Foods Uptown. She is the founder and director of To Grandmother’s House We Go Cooking Tours and has been featured in National Geographic, The New York Times, The Daily News, The Washington Post, and Reuters. She has appeared in Molly O’Neil’s New York on PBS, NBC News and NPR.

 

 

Celine Beitchman joined the Natural Gourmet Institute in 2006 as a Chef’s Training/Public Class Instructor. She has a Bachelors degree in Film from Hunter College in New York City and has worked as a Stagier at Le Dome in Paris, the Natural Gourmet, and Thomas Keller’s Rakel. In addition, she has extensive and varied experience as a multi-media food stylist, food retailer, caterer, line cook, private chef, pastry chef, and executive chef.

 

 

 

 

Alexandra Borgia, is a graduate of The Natural Gourmet’s Chef’s Training Program as well as the New York Restaurant School. She has over 14 years of extensive culinary experience serving as roundsman, line cook, sous chef and head chef and consultant for well known restaurants both in New York City and on Long Island. In addition to being a chef/instructor in the Chef’s Training Program, Alexandra is a private chef, where she concentrates on clients’ specific health needs.

 

 

 

 

Lisa Phillips Boyman is a 1994 graduate of The Natural Gourmet’s Chef’s Training Program. She is the Chef’s Training Program Administrator and a current instructor. She has been a private chef, caterer, and owner of a wholesale baking business and was Head Baker at The Health Shoppe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Annemarie Colbin, Ph.D., is the founder of the Natural Gourmet and author of The Book of Whole Meals, Food and Healing, The= Natural Gourmet, and Food and Our Bones. Her column, “Food and Your Health” has been appearing in NY Spirit Magazine since 1988. Annemarie has over 25 years' experience with natural foods cooking and teaching and was a recipient of the Avon 1993 Women of Enterprise Award. She was recently awarded a Ph.D. from The Union Institute and University in Cincinnati, OH.

Melanie Ferreira, was the founder of The Healthy Gourmet Cooking School and Director of Nova Institute Cooking School in Colorado. She has over twenty-three years experience teaching whole foods cooking and has been a contributing food writer for health publications including Natural Health and Macro News. In addition to being an instructor in the NG Chef’s Training Program, she is also a nutritional consultant and private chef.

 

 

 

 

 

Judith Friedman is the Program Director of the Natural Gourmet Institute for Food & Health and owner and executive chef of Conscious Cuisine, a company offering cooking classes to small groups and individuals, catering and private cooking. She is a graduate of the Natural Gourmet’s Chef’s Training Program.

Jill Gusman is a veteran Chef’s Training/Public Class Instructor and lecturer at the Natural Gourmet Institute. She is also the author of Vegetables from the Sea (Harper Collins, Spring 2003) and a passionate participant of sea vegetable harvesting in Northern California. A graduate and former cooking instructor at the Kushi Institute, Jill has many years of experience in catering and teaching about gourmet natural foods and healing cuisines.

Myra Kornfeld is the author of The Voluptuous Vegan (Clarkson N. Potter). She created inventive cuisine for 6 years at Angelica Kitchen in NYC, where she was also head pastry chef. She is the co-creator of the videos, Absolutely Tofu 1 & 2, as well as a veteran teacher, consultant and food arts writer. Myra is a graduate of The Natural Gourmet’s Chef’s Training Program and Peter Kump’s Pastry Arts Program.

Jenny Matthau, President of the Natural Gourmet Institute, and Director of the Chef’s Training Program, is a graduate of the NG Teacher's Training Program and the Apprenticeship Program (both 1985). She was head chef of the Friday Night Dinner Club during 1987-88; worked as a private chef and has several featured recipes in The Natural Gourmet cookbook, The American Health Food Book, and Super Soy: The Miracle Bean. Her column appears bi-monthly in Biodiversity magazine. Jenny is responsible for curriculum development for the Chef’s Training Program, which includes the incorporation of current research/theories within the medical & scientific communities concerning food, health and disease.

 

Anthony Moraes joined the Natural Gourmet Institute as a Chef’ Training/Public Class Instructor in July of 2005. Anthony has an extensive educational background with degrees in Business Administration from Union County College, Contemporary American Literature from Rutgers, and Culinary Arts and Restaurant Management from New York Restaurant School. Early in his career, Anthony worked with Chef Michel Nischan at Heartbeat Restaurant in the W Hotel and as a Stagier at the Michelin 2-star Vila Joya restaurant in Portugal. Anthony later became the Sous-Chef of Eleven Madison Park for Chef Kerry Heffernan and ultimately was promoted to design, oversee construction, and open 22 West as Executive Chef.

 

Cheryl Perry, a graduate of the Natural Gourmet’s Chef’s Training Program, is the owner/chef of Dish Restaurant and C. Perry Catering in New York City. She has worked as a pastry chef at Angelica Kitchen and a cooking instructor at Caravan of Dreams. She is the author of Meeting and Eating: Recipes from a Quaker Kitchen, and her recipes have appeared in numerous magazines including Vegetarian Times and Gourmet.

 

 

 

 

 

Elliott Prag joined the Natural Gourmet Institute as a Chef’s Training/Public Class Instructor in 1999. Elliott holds a Bachelors Degree from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, and graduated the Natural Gourmet’s Chef’s Training Program in 1995. Thereafter he worked in numerous New York natural food restaurants before pursuing and developing his private chef business. In 1999, he expanded his business by founding Siegfried & Prag, Caterers. In 2003, Elliott traveled to Sofia, Bulgaria for two years, where he opened, as Executive Chef, Kibea Restaurant, the first health-supportive restaurant in The Balkans.

 

 

Barbara Rich joined the Natural Gourmet as a Chef’s Training Instructor in 2005. She holds a Bachelors Degree from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and a culinary degree from California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, California. Before joining the Natural Gourmet teaching staff, she worked at Cardwells Restaurant in St. Louis, Zuni Café in San Francisco, and The Lobster Club, Savoy, and Danal in New York City.