The 2015 Team!
Brenna Boone and Luca Del Fante, hospitality team members of this year’s TuttoToscana program, interview the brigade about their culinary drive and future goals. This exciting lineup of voices, hopes, and dreams hail from the US, Mexico, Iceland, Brazil, Peru, Italy, Columbia, and Jamaica.
Emmalee Aiken, USA
Emmalle Aiken is a young culinary student from New Hampshire. She got her interest in cooking from baking at home as a child. She enjoys learning and creating Tuscan cuisine. She is excited to work for the James Beard Foundation through Tuttotoscana because she enjoys teamwork in the kitchen and the events rely heavily on teamwork.
Shea Matthews, USA
Shea Mattews’ passion for cooking came from Geology; more specifically not doing her geology. By missing out on one of her Geology class, she realized that she strongly disliked Geology, her former major. Simultaneously she realized that she loved cooking! Shea grew up in Philadelphia and has experienced Italian and American kitchens. Though she loves Italian cuisine, she feels more comfortable and free in an American kitchen. From Tuttotoscana she is learning more respect for the ingredients in each food.
Siergio Lozano, Mexico
Siergio Lozano began, like most, cooking at home with his family. He grew up in Mexico and would like to take his knowledge of Mexican and Italian cuisine to someday open a restaurant in San Francisco. Through his experience in Tuttotoscana he is hoping to experience how to handle an environment where he is under more pressure to preform, because of the high standards of food.
Giovanna Piragini, Brazil
Giovanna Piragini grew up cooking in Brazil with her grandmother and has continued through college. She would like to learn different cultures cuisine by working in kitchens all around the world. Giovanna wants to learn more about classical kitchens and she chose to learn from an Italian kitchen rather than traditional French kitchens. Something she has learned form being in the kitchen is that there needs to be a good balance between teaching and learning; it’s not only about what you absorb but also what you can give and what you can teach others.
Jennifer Lucas, USA
Jennifer Lucas believes what makes the kitchens of the world unique are the ingredients, it’s what makes every culture different. Jennifer grew up in Rhode Island but would like to work all around the states. She originally was studying in the medical field but realized she was more passionate about cooking.
Sarah Waters, USA
Sarah Waters began college with a soccer scholarship at a culinary school. She soon realized she wanted to focus mostly on her cooking. Sarah enjoys baking but doesn’t have much of an exact area of cooking that is her favorite yet. She isn’t sure what exactly she wants to do with her experience at Tuttotoscana or with culinary school because she just graduated. Though this program she is hoping she will learn how to cook in different environments.
Filomena Castrovillari, USA
Filomena Castrovillari is from an Italian family in Stamfort, Connecticut. Her love for baking began when she would make cookies and other goodies with her family every Christmas. Food was always something she enjoyed and she loved putting smiles on people’s faces with it. Filomena wants to travel the world to gain culinary knowledge and experiences and then one day open a bakery with this knowledge. Through Filomena’s experience at Tuttotoscana she hopes to gain experience working within different locations and doing different event styles. She likes learning to quickly and swiftly adapt to new environments.
Mary Grace McGuinn, USA
Mary Grace McGuinn was inspired to become a baker from her mother. Her mother was the baker of her house in Boston, Massachusetts. She taught Mary how to make simple things like cookies and other holiday goodies. Once Mary was in high school she took classes on cooking and became very close with her teacher. Another aspect of Mary’s culinary passion is that she loves learning new things like she did in her time studying cooking in Italy. She wants to gain a broad perspective from different chefs and especially loves to bake breads. One of Mary’s baking goals is to work at different bakeries around the globe and gain new knowledge of baking from each one. Baking for the events within Tuttotoscana is a great experience in Mary’s perspective because the kitchens are not all large and glamorous, but smaller and older, and they are teaching her to adapt to anything and just focus on the ingredients and what they can produce.
Annalise Carlson, USA
Annalise Carlson came from Renton, Washington and got her passion for cooking from watching the show “That’s So Raven” on Disney channel. Within the show, the protagonists’ father was a chef who owned his own restaurant. Annalise took inspiration from this and decided she wanted to own her own restaurant. By the time she was in seventh grade she was already coming p with new ideas and concepts for her restaurant that she wants to name “Splitz.” The concept within this restaurant would be that half of it is formal, and half of it is casual. Within “Splitz” she would also like to have an ethnic theme of the month where she features food from this culture in her appetizer, entre and dessert. Through the experience Annalise gains at Tuttotoscana she hopes to continue her baking knowledge and help her with her future restaurant.
Taylor Whitcomb, USA
Taylor Whitcomb is from Gorham, Maine. She has gotten her inspiration to be a chef from her older brother who is also a chef in New York City. She has always taken lessons from her brother’s cooking and learned from him. Someday Taylor would like to own her own a bakery and a farm where she produces all her own fruits and vegetables for her bakery products. She would like to even have her own chickens and cows for the eggs and milk. At Tuttotoscana Taylor wants to gain more experience and knowledge.
Audbjorg Jorundsdottir, Iceland
Audbjorg Jorundsdottir is an international culinary student from Reykjavik, Iceland. She has recently graduated from college and wasn’t sure what she wanted to do as a career. She always enjoyed baking and her mother suggested she go to Florence University of the Arts., so she did. Now she loves learning more about cooking and baking because she finds herself at peace and relaxed in the kitchen. Audbjorg would like to open a breakfast and pastry shop someday. She is hoping to get some good recommendations and learn how to work better with a team through Tuttotoscana.
Rebecca Jardine, Jamaica
Rebecca Jardine is an international student from Kingston, Jamaica. Rebecca’s grandmother used to always bake her cookies. One day, her grandmother fell and broke her hip, and was unable to make cookies. Rebecca took it upon herself to make her and her grandmother cookies from then on. Through working in the culinary industry Rebecca hopes to become the executive chef at a hotel in her hometown. When asked what she hopes to get out of the Tuttotoscana program she said “I hope to get out alive”. She also is excited to learn how to cook for large amounts of people in a professional setting.
Kimberly Sousa, USA
Kimberly Sousa began to learn about baking through a program at her high school in Pbody, Massachusetts. She loved how culinary careers aren’t a desk job, but are very hands on and active. She loves pleasing people with sight, smell and taste. One thing she enjoys about working for a program through the James Beard Foundations is how prestigious and respected the program is and she loves getting a chance to utilize her high-end baking skills. With her interest in fine dining and high end baking she would like to open a bakery in Europe some day. She studied in France and Florence and enjoys the fact that they really appreciate the hard work and delicacy that goes in to many parts of baking and pastry. In her time working at Tuttotoscana she is excited to get every opportunity possible to learn more and to be affiliated with the James beard Foundation.
Paola Munoz, Colombia
Paola Munoz came from Medellin, Colombia to learn about Italian culture and cuisine in Florence and New York. She enjoys cooking because she believes that cooking and food represent different cultures so through cooking you can experience and learn about many different cultures. Italian food is Paola’s favorite to cook and she is hoping to stay in Italy for a while and learn lots about their culture and culinary traditions. With the knowledge she will learn from her experiences at Tuttotoscana and in Italy she hopes to open an Italian restaurant in Colombia. She also hopes to learn about what it’s like to work under pressure and move outside of her comfort zone in the kitchen.
Marta Consales, Italy
Marta Consales is from Florence, Italy, and it is a major part of why she loves cooking. She says that she doesn’t remember a time in her life that she didn’t love to cook. She was raised with this largely because of her culture and where she is from. She would like to open an Italian restaurant in Tuscany some day. Through her experience at Tuttotoscana she would like to learn to grow up with regard’s to cooking in a professional cooking environment as opposed to her home environment.
Charles Ewald, USA
Charles Ewald grew up on Long Island, New York cooking with his grandma. She taught him so much about cooking and when she passed away it was difficult for him to find his love for cooking for a period of time. Now he has found inspiration by cooking in his grandmother’s honor. Charles loves to learn new things and that is exactly what he hopes to do through Tuttotoscana. He also wants to see what it is like to work in a high pace kitchen because that is a new experience for him and a skill he could use to open his own restaurant one day.
Alec Sobotka, USA
Alec Sobotka has had an interest in cooking since he took a cooking class at his 6th grade school in Bellevue, Washington. This class was held at a local Whole Foods and he learned his love for utilizing fresh and simple ingredients to create delicious dishes. Alec figures that his love for eating goes hand-in-hand with his love for cooking. One of his culinary goals is to open a restaurant in Seattle, Washington with different fusion foods. He would create a place where he created his own restaurants off of the foods he loves. Through his experience at Tuttotoscana he hopes to learn more and get a sense of accomplishment from working for such a prestigious program. With his time as a chef Alec just wants to make good food, and make people happy with his food.
Joseph Guevara, USA
Joseph Guevara is from Dallas, Texas. He loves the pursuit of perfection in cooking. Though he knows nothing is perfect, he likes the attempt to make something as close as possible. He tries to take something and make it better in any way he can. In his culinary career he would like to own several restaurants and begin within the next five years. Joseph loves the idea of getting to be his own boss. Through Tuttotoscana Joseph is looking forward to learning more about Tuscan cuisine and he likes that he gets the chance to learn more in-depth about a specific culture’s cuisine.
Romina Wagener, Peru
Romina Wagner is an international culinary student from Lima, Peru. She has been cooking for her entire life and began cooking alongside her grandpa who is Italian. Romina’s culinary goal is to own a bistro where she can utilize her culinary and baking skills by having a half restaurant and half bakery bistro. Within this bistro she would also like to integrate international foods with Peruvian ingredients. From Tuttotoscana Romina hopes go gain more knowledge and hopefully come back next year.
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