About

I love food exploration and travel; different cultures and cuisines; and finding out how a food is produced and who is producing it. I’m constantly exploring and learning with food as my medium.

My food studies began in the kitchens of Madeleine Kamman’s Boston restaurant and cooking school in the mid-’70s. From there I went on to cook in Boston’s Front Street Restaurant, then the Zuni Café in San Francisco. Next, I moved to Calgary, Canada for a few years to work as an executive chef, followed by several years as the executive chef at the Olema Inn in West Marin, north of San Francisco.

After my years working in restaurants, I traveled through Asia for three months, visiting friends and family in wonderful, far-flung places like Taiwan, Japan, Nepal, Singapore and Indonesia. I later traveled to India with culinary legend, Julie Sahni. Back in the San Francisco area, I launched a catering business and also worked as a private chef.

I have taught cooking classes at various locations both professionally (Culinary Institute of America Greystone Campus) and non-professionally (Dreager’s and Tante Marie’s Cooking School in San Francisco) and at L’Academie de Cuisine in Bethesda, MD. I currently teach classes online.

I’ve received both a BA in Religious Studies and a Master’s in South and Southeast Asian Studies from the University of California Berkeley.

I am a member of International Association of Culinary Professionals, Les Dames d’Escoffier Washington Regional Chapter,  where I have served as President and Treasurer and Les Dames d’Escoffier International , I served on their board for 2 years. 

Cooking with Drew is a forum to share my love of exploring food, from local sources as well as the foods of different cultures, to share my teaching experiences, and to investigate a myriad of food tastes, textures, and qualities.

Find me on  Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook. Sign up for updates about new recipes and cooking classes here:      I welcome your feedback!

– Drew