Fall 2015
Jessica Caccamo is originally from Clifton Park, NY and completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree at Alfred University in 2009 where
she concentrated in ceramics. Immediately following graduation she began working in Alfred University’s admissions office and started recruiting students from New Jersey and Manhattan. Jessica has been working as a higher education professional for the past 6 years, and credits her travels to Manhattan, as well as other cities across the Northeast and Midwest, as the impetus for her passion for creative and innovative food. She has become an avid home cook and baker, and also spends her time working as a server at Brookline’s Fairsted Kitchen. She hopes that the Gastronomy program will help her make the transition to working full time in the restaurant and food industry.
Krysia Lycette Villón was born and raised in the Boston-area. She received her BA in Spanish from Mount Holyoke Coll
ege and her AS in Culinary Arts from Johnson & Wales University at Providence, among other professional certificates in the hospitality industry. She currently works as the Assistant Manager of the Retail Store at Taza Chocolate in Somerville, MA, a bean-to-bar organic, stone-ground, dark chocolate factory just outside Boston. She had a long career in Development and Volunteer Management in higher education until she decided to pursue her culinary dreams. Her recent experiences in the culinary world have brought her to want to learn more about various food histories, especially that of the Aymara and Quechua people of South America (her ancestors), and the cultures connected to them. She is inspired by the generations-deep relationship Indigenous peoples have with the world (and, hence, food items) around them and wishes to write and teach about these histories. She hopes to develop this knowledge more intimately through the Gastronomy program at BU.”
Ilana Hardesty has been an enthusiastic home cook for as long as she can remember. Her inherited food genes are from her Iowa meat-and-potatoes father (brownies!) and her South African Jewish mother (chicken soup with matzoh balls!). Ilana’s interests in food have led to extensive cooking experimentation at home, (including keeping her cardiovascular-challenged husband interested in low fat food), voluminous shelves of books about food and foodways, and teaching healthy cooking techniques at a number of Boston-area adult education institutions. Her aim in the BU Gastronomy Program is to give structure to her self-taught knowledge of food and food issues, and to expand her general knowledge.
Rachel DeSimone is a born and raised New Yorker from Hell’s Kitchen who found her way to Boston to complete her undergraduate 
studies in Hospitality Administration and Journalism at BU. She has worked in an array of restaurants during her college career in Boston, New York and Sydney, Australia but found her true passion in writing. As she embarked her editorial career she took on the position of Editor in Chief of BU’s chapter of the national food publication Spoon University, managing a team of 50 people. She continues to find inspiration writing about anything that catches her appetite. She knows that the Gastronomy program will strengthen her food foundation and inform her writing and is excited for all that is to come as she begins the graduate school journey. Most importantly to note, she loves ice cream to the ends of the earth and always has at least seven different pints in her freezer for safekeeping.
Valencia Baker is a fresh transplant from beautiful California who is on a mission to soak up all things epicurean at Boston University. Blend the adventurously quirky energies of Ms. Frizzle, with the homey, bubbly feel of Giada de Laurenttiis, and you’ve got her in a tasty nutshell. She’s dipped into many food niches, from Culinary Arts Elementary School Teacher, farm hand and prep cook at a Roman countryside restaurant, to Food Shelter Organizer outside of Sacramento, CA, and prep cook in Philadelphia’s financial district, but she’s hungry for academic growth.
A graduate of University of California Davis’ Sociology, Anthropology, and Sustainable Food Systems programs, her mind is excited about food justice. Born to an artistic and hardworking Afro-Latina family, Valencia grew up eating and cooking lots of colorfully rich meals at the kitchen table. Food brought everyone together after hard days’ work and each delectable dish, prepared with care, was enthusiastically celebrated by all. Eventually, the desire to share with others the feelings of love, gratitude, and pleasure that creatively prepared meals bought her family became an insatiable passion. After undergraduate school, she focused on merging her food love fury with her blooming social concerns for food justice. After BU Gastronomy, Valencia plans to open a food education farm supported bed and breakfast.
Elizabeth Nieves is from the Bluegrass State of 
Kentucky, 1,000 miles south of Boston. She recently graduated from the University of Kentucky with her Bachelor’s of Science in Food Science. Food science led her to two internships, including one at WILD Flavors, Inc. and the Food Systems Innovation Center (FSIC) at UK. Working at WILD gave her insight into the commercial food industry, while working with FSIC taught her about food microbiology and how to do home canning. Baking is where her real passion lies and, thus, her friends have affectionately nicknamed her ‘Bethy Crocker.’ Her great grandfather started the family bakery, which was passed down two generations and is no doubt where her fondest baking memories began. By studying Gastronomy, she would like to expand upon her culinary skills, while keeping a global perspective. Elizabeth will focus on food policy and hopes to work with the global food supply or nutrition policies in the future.
“One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating.” – Luciano Pavarotti
Metiga Parkcharoen credits this quote with giving her the courage to follow her gourmet dream of becoming a well-versed food connoisseur and restaurateur. Originally from Bangkok, Thailand, Metiga has had the chance from a young age to study in many other countries, including Singapore, France and the United Kingdom.She received her BA in Marketing Communication Management from Chulalongkorn University in Thailand with a term of study aboard program at Sciences Po in Paris. She has also completed a Master’s Degree in Marketing at University of Bath in UK. Through this travel she became trilingual (English, Thai and Chinese) and she also developed an interest in the various food scenes.
Metiga’s wanderlust and experiences living aboard and her eagerness to try out all kinds of cuisines have sparked her love of food. She anticipates an entrepreneurial career, revolving around curating the ultimate dining experiences. She also hopes that she will be able to contribute and share her extended knowledge of the food manufacturing industry and experiences while working as a marketer for one of the leading food conglomerates in her home country.
Yi Chieh Yeh, also known as Erica, is from Taiwan but has lived in South Africa for most of her life. She recently graduated from the University of Stellenbosch with a Bachelor of Science in Dietetics. She started baking her own birthday cakes to take to school 
to share with her classmates in her early teens and has loved cooking and baking since. Having worked with and talked to all sorts of people about their health and nutrition during her university days, she became intrigued by how food, culture, history and so many aspects each play a different but important role in an individual’s life and well-being. She dreams to be able to create beautiful food, as well as, to give appropriate and effective dietary and culinary advice and guidance to people with special dietary needs.