If the Table Could Talk- A Taste of Celebrations

Alyssa was born in Jersey City,NJ and raised with her family in Closter,NJ. Her love of cooking started at a very young age loving spending time in the kitchen with her mother and her Nana. Growing up in an Italian household exposed me to cooking traditions, family Sunday dinners and healthy food preparation on a daily basis. At 16 years old, my Mom saw a help wanted sign in the window of a small gourmet store front called Cooktique in Tenafly, New Jersey, near where we lived in Closter. I applied and was hired as the owner's runner and assistant for two sum- mers and on weekends during the school year. The owner, Silvia Lehrer, gave me my first opportunity to work in a professional culinary atmosphere andI was hooked the minute I walked into her store. She also had a small cooking school in the back of the store where she taught classic cooking classes.I was the shopper, prepper and food gopher while demonstrating the newest craze, the Cuisinart Food Processor! Here is where I learned one of my most valuable cooking lessons, especially to make stock, stock and more stock. She would also have guest chefs for a few weeks each summer to teach spe- cialty classes and promote their first cookbooks. I was able to assist the renown French chef Jacques Pépin and the famous Italian chef noted for his extraordinary pasta making, Giuliano Bugialli. What a thrill and I didn't even know what celebrities they would become! I was just enamored by them - I was in cooking heaven. This was my passion and that is when I knew I wanted to pursue a career in food. I also worked as a Friendly's waitress the last three years of high school. Here is where I learned my people skills as well as service skills.During that time in high school my dad encouraged me to write to the food editors of national magazines to ask them how to pursue a career in the culinary arts. This was life-changing advice as many of them wrote back with college choices and even class suggestions. I was accepted to Cornell University and obtained a bachelors degree in nutritional sciences but I still was longing for more culinary training. For two college summers, my Dad also thought I should apply as an intern at the Lipton Company, now known as Unilever, where I was asked to work in the food science department. They introduced me to the Lipton Test Kitchens down the hall. This department developed and tested recipes for their food products and, again, I realized I needed to be in a kitchen environment. After graduating from Cornell, I was hired as a Test Kitchen Home Economist at Lipton and worked there for three years. I learned so much about the corporate food industry but I still longed for more advanced culinary training. I decided to leave Lipton and enrolled into a full time culinary chef program at the New York Restaurant School in New York City. I fell into my heaven and loved the training every day in my chef whites. I graduated with a chef certification with honors. Soon after, the school sponsored students for some extra training at Le Cordon Bleu, France, my dream school! After returning from Europe, I applied to many food magazines in New York City. One of the food editors, Jean Voltz, remembered my high school letter and hired me several times as a freelancer. I continued to freelance, over three years, for numerous publications. It was here where I performed more recipe development but then I would also be asked to go into the photography studio to food style the recipes for the camera. Everything started to click together for me. My food science training at Cornell, my culinary passion, love of food art, and then my professional culinary training - it was the perfect blend to become a professional food stylist. I continue to freelance as a food stylist presently.I have food styled over the years for many major food companies as well as magazines, for print, packaging, film, advertising, social media and video applications.