Work With Me

Send me an email at kate@kateray.net to discuss your event and work with me to create something beautiful, delicious, and entirely you.

Small Weddings, Parties & Retreats

I’d be happy to work with you to create a unique meal, party spread, or dessert for groups of up to 100 people. Drop-off or full-service options available.

Private Chef Services

Let me take on meal prep for you the way I do for my family — nutritious meals made from fresh, local foods. I can work with most dietary restrictions and have particular experience with postpartum diets.

Cooking Classes: Birthday Parties, Team-building Activities, Private Classes

Whether teaching kids or adults, I seek to infuse creativity into all my cooking classes. I offer easily-configurable recipes so that everyone feels comfortable experimenting and still ends up with something delicious.

Artist Collaborations

I’m interested in working with artists to produce events or physical works. Recent collaborations include a cyberpunk vendor stall for a William Gibson inspired show, a cake installation and talk for CPW’s FEAST (Fostering Eco-centric Art & Science Together), a tablescape for The School of Making Thinking’s Whoreticulture Benefit, a mycelial dinner with flutist Annie Wu, and The Book of #veGAN, an art-cookbook with AI artist Helena Sarin.

Sample Menus

Case study: A Summer Dinner

Seasonal dinner spread for a 60-person private party.

Menu

Cilantro, parsley, scallions, sunflower seeds. Vegetarian, GF. Contains dairy, sunflower.

Vegan, GF. Contains tree nuts, sunflower

Toasted pepitas, basil. Vegan, GF. Contains seeds.

Chili crisp, candied cashews, crispy shallots. Vegan, GF. Contains tree nuts, sesame, soy, & coconut.

Bread Alone sourdough, fermented garlic scapes. Vegetarian. Contains wheat, eggs.

Local sour cherries, toasted walnuts. Contains wheat, eggs, chicken, tree nuts.

Maple-tamari glaze, cherry tomatoes. Vegetarian, GF. Contains eggs, soy, sesame.

Spelt biscuits, fig leaf crème chantilly. Vegetarian. Contains eggs, dairy, wheat.

Case study: A wild May Day brunch for families

To celebrate the spring “wake-up” of Stuy Cove Park, a native food forest in Manhattan, I worked with park caretaker Candace Thompson to develop a menu that incorporated foraged foods into a brunch spread for volunteers and a visiting Girl Scout troop.

Menu

Curly dock is a wild cousin of buckwheat and a common weed. These fresh-baked bagels were soft and chewy with a nutty taste.

I made a spread similar to scallion cream cheese by straining local goat yogurt and mixing with foraged field garlic.

This was a creamy cashew-based pesto with spicy foraged greens.

Hazelnuts make for a particularly rich nut butter, which was sweetened with maple syrup.

Case study: A Socially-Distanced Stoop Wedding

During the early pandemic, some friends decided to have a small wedding ceremony and then turn a Brooklyn brownstone stoop into their reception venue. People dropped by throughout the day for champagne and dessert. Since they needed something that could be served individually, I made mason jar tiramisu “dirt cups” with crumbled Oreos and black sesame, garnished with flowers.