Christina was lucky enough to grow up around fresh food. Her grandparents had a farm and her parents a large vegetable garden, both of which served to feed the family the majority of their meals year round (along with the baby beef bought from the neighbor each summer). Butchering, canning, freezing, hunting and gathering set the foundations of her food world. Her cooking skills started when she was in 2nd grade and her mum provided her with an electric griddle so that she could make her own breakfast before school. Her repertoire was limited to bacon and eggs (fried, scrambled, or omelets), or the occasional slice of ham, but she did cook and develop very fond memories of that electric griddle.
Her cooking experience grew as she did and after spending 3 years in Italy with French neighbors while finishing University, she fully succumbed to the seductions of the Culinary world. While working a ‘real’ job she started following the organic movement, and after reading an article about a local farm in Gourmet while home from London, she decided it was time for a career change. She sent the owner of the farm a letter telling him how great she thought his program was and was offered a job. That began her relationship with Sunnyside Farms and Green Circle Organics. A relationship that would last over 6 years and see the roll out of the National Organic Program, development of 8 products that had never existed in the organic community, and one on one customer service selling at the Dupont Farmer’s Market in DC.
In January of 2005 Christina’s mother convinced her to take a 20 week cooking course at L’Academie de Cuisine and her world was rocked. By learning fundamental French cooking techniques her food world bloomed, morphed, and created an entirely new canvas for her ingredients from the Farm. Since then she has taken many advanced courses at L’Academie, assisted at both the local professional and recreational cooking schools, as well and cook for private catering gigs (one for 300), private parties, wine tastings, private classes for children and most recently she made her own bacon- but don’t ask her about the duck prosciutto experiment (her dog ate it- honest). She also teaches for Common Threads, an after school program that teaches kids about food, culture and nutrition.
