ABOUT ME
Writer
Educator
Hospitality Professional
Maître d’ and English Teacher.
My two careers have more in common than you might think: starting with the podium and the welcome.
Both métiers require the ability to read a room, plan the day in advance, stick to tight time constraints, go micro on the details while keeping the big picture in view, anticipate the needs of the guests/students, and graciously roll with surprises.
Chef Daniel Boulud once told me, “Somebody has got to drive the boat, and that somebody is you.”
In addition to driving the boat in many restaurants and high school classrooms, I’ve worked as a culinary bike tour guide in Europe, private cook, tutor, menu translator, caterer, event planner, camp counselor, creative writing workshop leader, recipe tester, copywriter, founding editor of The Gourmet Garage Gazette, and freelance writer for The Beard House Magazine, Time Out New York, Food Arts, Restaurant Business, Chefs Magazine and The Philadelphia Inquirer.
My passions are Shakespeare and the Hospitality Business, both of which I’ve written books about.
I attended the Restaurant School in Philadelphia, managed restaurants in Boston, spent several semesters abroad in Paris, and earned a BA in Literature and Writing at Columbia University while working at some of Manhattan’s finest restaurants.
I was hired as bartender/cashier at Mezzaluna on the Upper East Side, and before long moved a few blocks west to Restaurant Daniel where I worked my way up from reservationist to Daniel Boulud’s first female maître d’.
In 2002 I followed my passion for working with teenagers back to Pennsylvania to teach high school English, study Shakespeare, and get a Masters in Literature and Writing.
In 2018 I returned to NYC, got back to work as a maître d’, finished a grief memoir, Teaching HAMLET as My Father Died, during the pandemic, and helped restaurants reopen running the door at Michelin-starred Francie, in Brooklyn.
At the end of 2023 I launched Maître d’ Diaries, a front-of-the-house industry podcast, as a way to build community and foster conversation amongst other restaurant folks, and to share what’s going on in the minds of the people who welcome and serve you in your favorite restaurants.
My motto: Keep learning, listen for your calling, and change careers every 15 years or so.