I recently filled out a bio for my cooking instructor position at The Brooklyn Kitchen. Read on for an inside scoop on Chef Linda Sarris "The Cheeky Chef".
inside a 1200-year old olive tree in Castelvetrano|Selinunte Sicily, Italy
Type of cuisine I like to cook:
“My cooking style is Italian Farm-to-Table. I use seasonal local ingredients while still trying to honor traditional cooking techniques. Traveling to discover the regional food and wine in Italy has been a great learning experience for me and the time I’ve spent in Sicily really seems to shine through in my cooking. ”
Specialty:
“I enjoy making handmade pasta and cooking with fresh seafood. I trained as a fishmonger at Eataly in New York since I wanted to cook with great quality fish, I needed to learn how to select the best products and be able to break them down on my own. I also love to cook Greek comfort food but I save that for special occasions.”
Past & Present:
“I was raised in a big Greek-American family with a Chef grandfather, a fisherman Dad and a kitchen full of women who loved to cook. I was asking for shrimp cocktail when other kids were eating chicken nuggets. After a career in book publishing, I attended the French Culinary Institute, worked briefly in a few restaurants before taking off to sharpen my culinary skills in another adventurous way. I have worked under Fabrizia Lanza at her cooking school in Sicily, spent summers as a private chef in Tuscany, consulted for a restaurant in Bucharest, and created a great network of clients working as a private chef here in New York. Cooking has been my way to share the things I love. There’s nothing better than laughing at the dinner table over a plate of pasta and a bottle of wine. ”