About
I’m a Brooklyn-based chef and cooking teacher. I teach kids’ classes at Hudson Table and The Sylvia Center, as well as an improv cooking workshop for adults called No Recipe. My goal is to help people of all ages learn to trust their own tastes in the kitchen and express themselves through cooking. I also write a newsletter about food and share original recipes at kateray.substack.com.
After a 10-year career as a computer programmer and creative technologist, I swapped the keyboard for the knife and studied Plant-Based Culinary Arts at ICE (a program that was formally the Natural Gourmet Institute). After graduating, I worked at the award-winning French bakery Dominique Ansel (home of the cronut) and Michelin-starred vegetarian restaurant Dirt Candy.
I love to work with vegetables in unusual ways: check out my recipe for a bright pink Beet, Pomegranate, & Walnut Cake. I have a particular infatuation with mushrooms, and have produced several mushroom-themed dinners and bake sales (I was interviewed by Saveur about making mushroom desserts).
Press
- Top 12 Tips for Cooking with Mushrooms | Saveur
- Chaos cooking is actually a good thing, these cooks say | The Washington Post
- From Tech Startup to Dirt Candy | Institute of Culinary Education
- The Cult of Spicy Chile Crisp Is Real | TASTE
Old Press (creative tech)
- We’ve All Cried in Public. This Site Lets Us Map Those Feelings | Slate
- The Paradox of Intolerance | Rhizome
- An App Can Help You Locate the Williamsburg of Your City, Or, Which Neighborhood to Avoid | Gizmodo
- Rhizome’s 2014 Seven on Seven Conference at the New Museum | Vogue