OUR CHEFS

Chef Chris has 23 years of experience in the culinary industry, with 10 years as an Executive Chef. He is a graduate of The Culinary Institute of America, where he achieved his bachelor’s degree. Chef Chris has also earned his MBA from LSU while working as a Food Service Director in the education sector. He has been seen on local television spotlighting local sustainable seafood and has created chef demonstrations for many local festivals. Chef Chris enjoys traveling with his wife Amy, and three boys, Ryan Luke and Maxwell, and he obviously enjoys teaching them to cook new and exciting things!

Chef Brittany Clinedinst has 10 years of experience in the culinary industry. With years of culinary competitions and being a sous chef, executive chef as well as being an Assistant Food Service Director. Chef Brittany graduated from Johnson and Wales University with a bachelor’s degree in Food Service Management and Business, along with a minor in Sommelier. Chef Brittany has previously wrote and instructed culinary summer camps at a local private school in Towson. Along with her love of food Chef Brittany also enjoys doing all things outdoors with her growing family. 

Chef Elizabeth has been passionate about food and cooking since she was a little girl.  Brought up by a family of food and cooking enthusiasts, she was always found helping in the kitchen.  When she was a young girl, she would spend hours reading through her parent’s cookbooks, examining the pictures, and dreaming of the day she would create such wonderful food. 

In 2007 Chef Elizbeth took that passion to school, and enrolled in The Art Institute International Minnesota, in downtown Minneapolis.  While attending school she simultaneously worked full time for some of the Twin Cities most accomplished chefs, Steven Brown at Porter & Frye, and Tim McKee at Solera, and then as the first female line chef at La Belle Vie where she was part of the team that helped Chef McKee win the James Beard in 2009. 

In 2010, after several successful years in fine dining, she was recognized by the head of the Schwan Food Company's culinary team and offered a position. It was here that she began learning about food science, sensory testing, marketing for retail and food service, and the nuances of product development. More than 20 years later, she has since continued her journey as a Research and Development Chef and is responsible for many products we see in the grocery store aisles, as well as in popular nationally know restaurants.

In addition to be a talented and accomplished chef, a loving mother to three amazing children and one incredible dog, she volunteers as a Brazilian jiu-jitsu instructor and trains and competes in the sport. 

Chef Lauren’s love of baking started in her grandmother’s kitchen as a child. Her grandmother taught her how to make a jello mold and that sparked her fondness for baking treats for friends and family!  Lauren graduated from the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone from their Baking and Pastry Certificate program in 2010 after receiving her Bachelor’s degree in Hotel Restaurant Management from University of Delaware.  A Catonsville native, Lauren moved back home to her hometown and worked in local bakeries such as Atwater’s, Charm City Cakes, where she worked with the "Ace of Cakes" Duff Goldman and at La Cakerie, where she was featured on an episode of Cake Wars and Cake Hunters. Cake and cupcake decorating are her passion and she loves baking special occasion and wedding cakes.  She is really excited to teach baking classes at the Culinary Craft Workshop and can’t wait to share her baking knowledge with you!

Chef Angela was born here in Baltimore, Maryland. The first thing she ever learned to cook was french toast at the age of 5. She went to Elizabethtown College for a degree in theater, and started making themed cupcakes for every theatrical show. This gave her the bright idea after graduation that the best course of action was to move to Australia and become a pastry chef. Which she did. She attended Le Cordon Bleu in Sydney, Australia and earned a Grande Diploma de Cuisine et Patisserie making her both a French Chef and Pastry Chef, only with an Australian accent to her knife work.  
After working in fine dining restaurants in Canberra, Australia, Angela moved back to Baltimore and worked for a variety of establishments including The Lord Baltimore Hotel, The Source by Wolfgang Puck, and currently Corcoran Caterers as their executive pastry chef. You can find Angela at the Culinary Craft Workshop sharing her obsession with Macarons as well as other baked treats and maybe occasionally dusting off the Cuisine part of that diploma.  

Chef Matthew Milani, a Catonsville resident, is a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Program.  He holds degrees in Culinary Arts, Pastry Arts, and Hotel & Restaurant Management in addition to a Sommelier.    Prior to graduation from culinary school, Chef Matthew completed externships under Louisiana Super Chef Paul Prudhomme and at the White House during President Bill Clinton’s presidency.    His professional experience includes time in the front and back of the house at four of the Foreman/Wolf restaurants, as well opening over fifty units across the country for multiple national and independent restaurant groups.   Chef Matthew was the owner and Executive Chef at his own restaurant, The Rumor Mill Fusion Bar & Restaurant, in Historic Ellicott City-focusing on global small plates & fusion beverages for the ten years prior to the catastrophic flood which removed the building.  In addition to being the lead culinary judge of Maryland Prostart, he is active in the American Culinary Foundation and likes to nurture and mentor younger chefs.   He was named Maryland’s Restaurateur of the Year by the Restaurant Association of Maryland in 2012.