Welcome New Students, Spring 2022!

We look forward to welcoming a wonderful group of new students into our programs this spring. Enjoy getting to know a few of them here.

Ana Acevedo-Barga Whether brewing fresh coffee, baking up a hot batch of chocolate chip cookies, or serving a 20-course meal, my delight in the experience of dining is everlasting. Food is magic! I have spent the past decade working in the food service industry, sharing my love for delectable cuisine and warming hospitality. My most recent years have been at o ya, a Japanese inspired restaurant in Boston, specializing in weaving flavor and texture into a mouthwatering journey. My work in fine dining has led me here, eager to explore food beyond its relationship to the restaurant industry. I look forward to studying the intersections between agriculture, history, society, economics and food. With my masters I hope to deepen my understanding of these origins of food and food practices in order to better contribute (and hopefully improve) the ever-evolving world of dining and hospitality.

Chad Bradford: Some time ago, I realized that every conversation with me, no matter how it started, somehow ended up being about food. They say they've got the latest gadget. The freshest beats. Water on the moon. Gastronomers, you know what I'm thinking. "Great, but will there be pizza?" That's why I was so excited to find the Gastronomy program at BU and a group of like-minded folks. We get it!

I retired in October 2021, but I am not yet ready to "retire" retire. I have developed an interest in how food affects bodies and spirits and want to learn more about the connections.

You will usually find me somewhere asking for seconds, running long trails, or enjoying work from home tea time with my wife.

Liz Lauren-Oser: I hold a master’s in Liberal Studies. As a teacher I taught my students that History is really just the story of people living in another time and it is a story very much like their own.

I collect cookbooks and recipes, especially (any) family recipes. Family recipes are often the glue that holds people together, binding them to their history. A recipe can perpetuate the warm memory of a beloved relative and can connect one generation to another. The food created from that recipe can offer not just physical saity, but an emotional connection.

I discovered this program after watching a lecture about Victorian Christmases. A food historian was part of the panel and at that moment I realized I could combine my interest in people’s stories and history with my love of cookbooks and recipes. Food and recipes are not just about physical nourishment, but snapshots of history, too. My dream job would be to become a food historian.

In my real life I am a wife, a mom to four adults and grandmother (BeBe) to four of the most remarkable humans I have ever encountered. I garden, take long walks and most of all, cook.

Stephanie Monserrate was born in Puerto Rico. She is a Project Manager and a former French and Portuguese Professor. Her interdisciplinary academic background granted her a bachelor degree in Latin American History with a Minor in Foreign Language Education. Her multiple passions made her pursue a Master Degree in Cultural Agency and Arts Administration. At the present she is interested in the different meanings and representations of food in our daily rituals. And how food fill the silences that we avoid.This new path brings her in to the Master of Arts in Gastronomy Program at Boston University’s Metropolitan College.

Siobhan O’Flaherty, a Boston native, is thrilled to join BU’s Gastronomy program after transferring from NYU. Siobhan’s journey to food studies began at her community garden in Brooklyn. A dedicated member, she fell in love with growing vegetables from seed, cooking her own harvest, and the deep bonds she forged with her community.

Upon returning home during the pandemic, she joined the field crew at Barrett’s Mill Farm, a women-owned, 15-acre organic vegetable farm in Concord. She is now spending the “off-season” in the produce department at Volante Farms in Needham. She continues her decades-long commitment to community service by volunteering weekly at her local food pantry.

Siobhan remains an avid gardener and spent her first year of grad school saving heritage seeds from Ireland and Portugal. She would love to connect with other BU students who are interested in seed keeping and sustainable agriculture. When she isn’t playing in the dirt, Siobhan is probably taking a walk while listening to a podcast.

My name is Sara Sobkoviak and I am a passionate teacher, foodie, traveler, and learner. I received my bachelor’s degree 20 years ago in Mass Media Communications from Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma and I minored in Spanish. I then went on to work in the photography industry and started my own business where I photographed families, individuals, engagements, and weddings (including countless Indian weddings where I sampled many amazing dishes). I have traveled to many Spanish-speaking countries and have been heavily influenced by their cultures and food practices. My interest in food has grown since I was a child in my mother’s kitchen in a small town in Illinois. I continued my passion for food by working in restaurants, for catering companies, and then studying culinary arts near my current home in California. My experiences in these kitchens have taught me so much about the culinary world, and the knowledge I now possess is one that I pass on to my high school students in an “Adulting” program I created. Beyond teaching Spanish and culinary skills to my students, I am constantly searching for new information and ways to open my eyes to the world of food and culture around me and bring more depth of knowledge to my classroom, which is why I decided to further my education at BU.

New Gastronomy and Food Studies Students, Fall 2021 part 2

We look forward to welcoming a wonderful group of new students into our programs this fall. Enjoy getting to know a few of them here.

Emma Campbell was raised in a suburb south of Boston and spent almost every Sunday of her childhood going to Sunday dinner at her grandmother’s house. This tradition and the days’ accompanying cooking instruction from her mother and grandmother, reinforced her love of food and cooking. Her grandmother’s recipe box full of handwritten notecards, magazine clippings, and miscellaneous notes remind Emma of food’s significant role in family life and the way in which food informs and evokes memories.Emma graduated from Boston College with a degree in Communication and a minor in American Studies with a concentration in Journalism. After almost three years since undergrad, she sincerely missed the world of academia. When she graduated from BC, she knew she was interested in the Gastronomy Master’s Program at BU and applied after COVID-19 and quarantine reaffirmed the idea that “there is no time like the present.” She hopes to learn more about the context and history of food systems, ingredients, and cooking methods and utilize that knowledge to enrich her life personally, and also prepare her for a future career in the food industry. She currently works at a Boston-based public media station, and spends most of her free time developing recipes and constantly pursuing informal culinary education and instruction. She also enjoys modifying and modernizing family recipes and taste testing them with her partner. She also has a cat named Mačka who will likely choose to introduce herself to Emma’s classmates during lectures on Zoom.

Delainey Rowland’s passion for food began in middle school, when her outside-the- city -limits house in Flagstaff, Arizona finally got cable. Drawn to the Food Network like a moth to a flame, Delainey knew she had found her spark. Once entering high school, Delainey competed in culinary competitions through programs like Careers through Culinary Arts and ProStart and was fortunate enough to become part of a food loving community, which helped her hone her technical and soft skills.

Her love for eating out, trying new things, and connecting with others across a dinner table led her to pursue a bachelor’s degree in Hospitality Management from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. While at UNLV she studied abroad in Spain and Australia taking food writing and sustainability courses while also indulging in the local cuisine and soaking up everything she could. Upon graduation, the bright lights and everchanging food scene of Sin City captivated her, where she went on to manage several food and beverage outlets in a luxury hotel environment.

While making focaccia and attempting (and failing) to learn to crochet during the Coronavirus lockdown, Delainey stumbled across the Gastronomy program at BU and got that warm fuzzy feeling, like the one when you pull a perfect tray of cookies from the oven. She knew it was time for a change and to pursue something that would encourage creativity.

Delainey is thrilled to make the cross country move to Boston and is looking forward to the seafood, being by the water and meeting other people who get as excited about charcuterie boards as her. Delainey also enjoys backcountry hiking and camping, painting, cheering on the Vegas Golden Knights and spending time with her mom and boyfriend.

Daniel Wilson is a lifelong New England native, born, raised, and schooled here in Boston. Despite this, his first memorable experience with food was cooking southern style BBQ with his dad and godfather (ironically New Hampshire natives), while competing in local BBQ contests as a teenager. The friendly competitive community, along with the detail and nuance that went into creating the perfect smoked meats, inspired him to learn how to cook on his own.

While completing his BA in Archaeology from Boston University (2018), Dan created his own independent minor in Food and Culture Studies, giving him opportunities to study food academia across multiple fields and disciplines. After he began working as Academic Program Coordinator at Boston University, he pursued an EdM in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Wheelock College (2021), inspired in part by the idea of creating new academic pathways for students, including a Food Studies program for undergraduates. Now he is excited to return back to the liberal arts, and to explore how his policy writing experience gained through working in education can be utilized for both student academic opportunities, as well as for advocating for food justice on a broader scale.

Outside of school and work, Dan is a vocalist who has been performing, touring, and recording with heavy metal bands since 2014. He enjoys writing about topics ranging from seafaring, dark fantasy, as well as themes of social justice and identity. He can often be found cooking for his bandmates and family, gardening with his dad, or starting a new, funky fermentation project.

You will most likely find Arielle Dubowe making tahini cookies in her kitchen or talking to people about exotic produce. Hailing from Los Angeles, Arielle feels close ties to this wonderful city full of farmers markets, tacos, and Jewish deli food. She also calls other cities her home, including Chicago, Philadelphia, and now, Boston.

Arielle’s experience with Boston goes all the way back to high school when she spent a summer at Emerson attending a college prep program. She fell in love with the city’s history and fierce loyalty to lobstah rolls and knew she’d be back one day. Growing up in a family of amaetur chefs and foodies, Arielle has always held a reverence for food, especially going out to local restaurants and learning the culture behind specific dishes. She wanted to combine this quest for knowledge with her newfound love for marketing and communications, thanks to the course she took at Emerson. Thus, she went on to pursue her BS in agriculture communication at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in California. 

Through her internships, Arielle has delved into the full spectrum of the food industry—from strategizing with vegetable farmers in upstate New York to delivering Hatch chiles to loyal customers in Southern California to learning about local grains at a bakery in Central California. Upon graduation, she moved to Chicago to begin her career in public relations, working with restaurant clients. After the pandemic hit, Arielle ended her two years in Chicago and went back to L.A., continuing to work remotely while enjoying her grandma’s cooking and eating In-N-Out burgers.

With Julia Child as her role model, it wasn’t hard for Arielle to stumble upon BU’s Gastronomy program and realize this was the best next step for her personal interests and career. With potential aspirations of being an educator, she is humbled to be among everyone else in this program and cannot wait to eat, connect, learn, and grow.

Samantha Torres was born and raised in Miami, Florida and her love for food started at a very young age. Before she could reach the stove, Sam was cooking breakfast for her family every weekend and baking cakes for every special occasion.

With a passion for entrepreneurship and a goal to own a bakery of her own one day, Samantha graduated in May 2020 with her bachelor’s in business from the University of Florida with a plan to go to pastry school soon after. Unfortunately, Sam tested positive for COVID-19 that summer, and with it, she lost her sense of smell and taste. Now nearly over a year later, her senses haven’t fully recovered.

Samantha is still eager to be a part of the food industry, just in a different way than initially expected, and hopes to explore her new position in the industry while in the BU Gastronomy program.

Sam first explored one of the many other avenues that exist within the food industry when she worked with a digital food publisher in London.  During this time, she learned to look at the industry from a new perspective and was able to explore the role food has on culture and the international aspects of the culinary world. She hopes to continue exploring these ideas and highlight her Cuban culture during her time at BU.

Sam is incredibly excited to move to Boston and start the Gastronomy program this fall. Outside the kitchen, you can find Sam either drawing, painting, or playing with one of her many dogs and cats.

always says that her brother Michael likes to make food (he studied at Ballymaloe Cookery School in Ireland), and she likes to write about food. She is thus a terrible cook, but a great taste-tester for Michael's concoctions and an okay writer.

Julia Fine first forayed into food studies at Harvard University, where she explored the food history of the British Empire. Her undergraduate thesis, based on three months of original research at the British Library, investigated the history of the potato in India. However, she wanted to make sure her discussions of food and empire were not divorced from the climate crisis and questions of environmental justice. In response, she pursued an MPhil at University of Cambridge in Modern South Asian Studies, where she wrote her dissertation on the environmental and labor history of salt production in colonial Bengal.

Between her studies, Julia has become involved in DC's exciting food history scene (and she would love to show any fellow Gastronauts around, if they find themselves in the area). She just finished serving as the Project Coordinator for the Folger Shakespeare Library's Before 'Farm to Table': Early Modern Foodways and Cultures Mellon project, and is now affiliated with Dumbarton Oaks' Plant Humanities Mellon Initiative, where she writes about the history of edible plants like turmeric, Carolina rice, and robusta coffee. She is currently very interested in the history of wine, and hopes to eventually write a book on wine, climate change, and climate science.

In her free time, Julia collects vegetarian cookbooks and tries to make her own hot sauce. She is excited to join the community at BU, and is grateful to the James Beard Foundation for supporting her studies.

Jessica Ann Vaughn is a passionate person with varied interests that tend to cluster around food, social justice, travel, and culture. In the dozen years since she graduated from NYU with a degree in Media, Culture, and Communications, she’s had a variety of professional experiences across corporate, small business, and solo ventures. 

Although her professional and academic experiences have not been centered around gastronomy, the topic of food, and the myriad of ways that it intersects with the economy, public health, the environment, and culture, has become the baseline from which she operates in her waking state. Through her curiosity for the topic of food, Jessica has become the CSA member who seeks to understand the challenges of making a living as a vegetable grower in rural Pennslyvania. She’s the restaurant patron quizzing the well-meaning waitstaff about their ingredient sourcing à la the infamous Colin the Chicken skit from IFC’s Portlandia. She’s the weirdo tourist who can’t leave a foreign city without dragging her travel companions to the local grocery store so that she can peruse the shelves and pick up a reusable tote for her collection back home. She’s the activist informing her friends and family about the staggering number of Americans who live in food-insecure households and redlining’s effect on equitable food access. She’s the home chef who heads to the kitchen to experiment, decompress, and lovingly serve a homemade meal to her family.

Jessica joins the Gastronomy program as an online student based in Eastern Pennslyvania. This past spring she completed a Food Writing course offered through Gotham Writers Workshop as well as BU’s Online Culinary Arts Lab. This program marks the beginning of an in-depth exploration of personal passion that she hopes will lead to a career in food media, food justice, or food business.

Kristi Rose was born and raised in a town outside of Dallas where she attended a Career and Technical Education high school and participated in the Culinary Arts track. She learned knife skills, was ServSafe certified, catered events, and had the opportunity to plan a restaurant in the ProStart Management Invitational. She had the privilege of experiencing cooking and food as a means of study, gathering, and profit. 

After Kristi earned her undergraduate degree in business and worked in corporate retail for three years, she had her first pivot and joined Teach for America and moved to Tulsa, OK. This is where she saw first hand how hunger and access to nutritional foods and education impacted the kids in her classroom and portions of the Tulsa community. In her second year, she started a Cooking Club at her school in partnership with Share our Strength's Cooking Matters campaign and the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma - through this club she experienced some of the most impactful moments as an educator.  The kids and parent volunteers connected with food and healthy habits, shared family recipes, and engaged with standards they were learning in their classes in a practical way. With an MLA in Gastronomy, she is hoping to gain the knowledge and skills needed to start her own food business or non-profit organization that actively works to expand food access while simultaneously teaching transferable cooking skills to the community.

Kristi is eager to be experiencing this second life pivot in Boston with her husband, Luke, and their two dogs, Berkeley and Dakota. In her free time she enjoys reading, walking the dogs, and roaming around the city taking it all in!

Aurore Kucaba is a recent graduate of the University of Vermont, where she earned a degree focusing on Animal Science. After deciding she did not want to pursue a future as a vet, she began looking into other pathways involving her degree. Aurore had the opportunity to intern with the animal advocacy group Green Mountain Animal Defenders, where she worked to provide more rights towards animals throughout the state of Vermont. Throughout the entirety of her college career, she also worked at multiple restaurants in Burlington, Vermont, where she learned first-hand about the local restaurant scene, and the use of local food vendors. After learning more about how animals were so often exploited in the food industry, she wanted to get more involved in animal justice in the food industry. Although she is neither vegetarian, nor vegan, she believes that a future in which sustainable food is accessible to all, while simultaneously respecting animals is possible. 

During her first summer post-grad, she moved to Boston amidst the Covid-19 pandemic to intern for a local animal law firm. Throughout her summer she grew to love the city of Boston, especially on her weekly donut tours when she was done with work. Aurore then decided to apply for more permanent positions in the city. Surprisingly enough, she got a job working at BU in the 808 building. On her break she happened to stumble upon the Gastronomy program and decided to take a class! After taking two classes, she wanted to commit to the program and pursue a future in Gastronomy. She’s really excited to meet you all this fall! Stop by the 808 Collection Site on campus and say hi!