Our 2017 Chef-Volunteer Team

We’re super excited to introduce the culinary professionals that will be part of our 2017 outreach trip. They are one amazing group! Please read on for pictures and bios after the jump.

Christine Ranieri, our fearless Trip Coordinator and co-Leader.  After several years of working as a baker, soup maker, caterer, sous chef and live-in personal chef, she is now a research dietitian and university chef-instructor. Currently, she works as the Program Manager for the Bionutrition Research Core at MD Anderson Cancer Center.  She designs and implements clinical feeding studies for our researchers interested in the links between diet and cancer prevention, treatment and survivorship.

Rose Lawrence hails from Pasadena, CA, where she owns and operates Eat Red Bread, a bakery specializing in wild yeasted breads and pastries. She is a certified forest therapy guide, a master food preserver, and a former human rights lawyer.

Analise Hankwitz lives in Chicago and is a graduate Kendall College with a degree in culinary arts. She has been a sous chef for Google, and a line cook at Fat Rice, and is learning the craft of whole hog butchery. She is currently part of the kitchen operations team at Limelight Catering in Chicago.

Jeremy Kohn  is a 2015 CulinaryCorps Camp Sunshine alumni and the Executive Sous Chef for the Metropolitan Museum of Art Restaurant Association in New York City. A culinary arts graduate from Johnson & Wales University, he’s really looking forward to working with the farmers at our Plant it Forward Event, and to eat real Texas BBQ.

Kim O’Donnel is an award winning cookbook author from Seattle, WA, and an alum from the 2007 CulinaryCorps New Orleans trip. Her newest book, PNW Veg, will be on shelves in May. She is also an adjunct chef-instructor at Rancho La Puerta and the Vice Chair of the Journalism Awards Committee for the James Beard Foundation.

Rusty Obra, a CulinaryCorps alum of Camp Sunshine 2013 and 2014 trips, is a high school culinary instructor in New Jersey. In his former professional incarnation, he was an opera singer, and his mother is in the food biz as well—she owns and operates a coffee plantation in Hawaii.

Brenda Aviles was a member of the CulinaryCorps Puerto Rico trip in 2010. She is a culinary arts graduate of Johnson and Wales University, and is now a Chef Instructor at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Dallas, Texas.

Minh Phan is from LA, and is the owner-chef of the acclaimed Porridge + Puffs and Mignardises, and a seasoned volunteer in the LA and Southern California culanthropy scene, including Slow Food LA, The LA Food Policy Council, and the Edible Schoolyard in Cheremoya. She’s an alum of the CulinaryCorps 2007 and 2011 trips. She is bilingual in English and Vietnamese.

Jessica Botta is a CulinaryCorps Board Member and a multiple-trip alum. She is the Director of Training and Culinary Development for Fabio Trabocchi Restaurants, including Fiola, Casa Luca, Fiola Mare, Sfoglina and the forthcoming Del Mar. Prior to her career in food, Jessica graduated from the University of Virginia, where she studied Italian literature.

CulinaryCorps founder, Christine “Chris” Carroll, has been building this trip alongside Christine Ranieri and will be taking on the role as Trip co-Leader in July. She has recently returned from a 6-month ex-pat existence in Munich, Germany, and now resides with her family in the Bay Area. She is the parent of an adventurous foodie, and is currently writing books for children with a culinary twist. Her most recent manuscript on edible insects had her testing cricket flour and serving cheese-dusted mealworms.