My Story

The kitchen has always been a magical place for me. As a little girl I loved to watch my Greek grandmother, or “yiayia,” curing olives and baking bread. I still remember the first time she gave me my own little ball of dough and let me shape it into a loaf. It might not have been as colorful as playdough, but when the aroma of freshly baked bread filled our kitchen, I instantly fell in love.

I graduated from the California Culinary Academy and embarked on a 10-year adventure, working in some of San Francisco’s most notable restaurants: Rubicon, The Slanted Door, Ame, LuLu and Yoshi’s, where I was named “one of the city’s top pastry chefs,” by the San Francisco Chronicle’s head food critic, Michael Bauer.

My culinary adventures have taken me to some places I never imagined: competing on the cooking/reality show Top Chef, building cities out of chocolate and Rice Krispies on Food Network, and eventually across the globe, to Greece, where I had my own cooking show on Alpha.

I’m also the author of two cookbooks. My recipes have been featured in Food & Wine, Oprah.com, The Talk on CBS, Access Hollywood, and more. For the full list, check out my press page.

Stepping Out of the Kitchen

After meeting my husband and having kids, I began to wonder, what’s next? I knew my days of slaving in a hot kitchen, no matter how much I loved the creative push and adrenaline rush, were over. Trying to do that work, day-in and day-out, when you’re no longer twenty something takes its toll. More importantly, I wanted to be at home to put my girls to bed and have dinner with my family. Life was great. But my creative mind started to grow restless. At that point, I was writing about food for multiple national platforms. Then, an agent asked me a question that helped an idea grow. Have you ever considered writing a story with a magical cooking angle? With one simple question, my life’s purpose changed.

A New Chapter

The world of food is a cool and magical place, but also tough, highly competitive, and ripe for fantasy. I wanted to bring readers into the world I knew intimately and loved. I wanted to tell stories I felt only I could write. You can really build cars and trains out of chocolate. Mushrooms actually breathe oxygen (weird, but true). Sugar can be used to make glass and mirrors. The culinary world is the perfect place to let your imagination run wild.

During the writing process I also discovered something interesting. I was using the same creative parts of my brain I’d used in the kitchen. All those years I spent designing plated desserts, coming up with flavor combinations, problem solving when a technique wasn’t working…in many ways it was like writing. You had to feel your way through the dialogue instead of the recipe. You had to develop plots instead of cake designs. But there was one big difference. Food only lasts a few days. A good book has no expiration date!

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