![\"\"](\"\/gastronomyblog\/files\/2022\/08\/catania-photo-477x636.jpg\")
Andrea Catania<\/strong> was born, bred, and buttered in the Syracuse, New York area. From a young age she witnessed the influence of food in small moments. Then, as she grew, gained a deeper understanding of food’s power to connect us on a larger scale. Andrea decided to attend college at The Culinary Institute of America in the beautiful Hudson Valley region. Upon graduation she spent the next decade focused on her career, working across several facets of the Food and Beverage industry in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and most recently Denver.\nShe is passionate about food justice and has had the opportunity to volunteer with multiple organizations that support food sovereignty and anti-hunger initiatives.
\nForever a student of wine, Andrea has a black cat named Gaja (after her favorite Italian producer). When she’s not busy spotting fellow left-handers in TV and movies, she can likely be found hiking, listening to podcasts about culinary history, or trying regional dishes throughout her travels.
\nBeing a part of the Gastronomy program at BU has been a dream of hers for more than ten years so she is thrilled to begin this next chapter. She intends to put her future degree to use by contributing to positive societal change in the field of food.<\/p>\n
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He has only recently discovered the field of gastronomy studies but feels that it dovetails perfectly into the passion he inherited from his grandmother, his previous master\u2019s degrees in social and cultural psychology and information studies, and his professional work as a user experience researcher and designer. He dreams about traveling the world and immersing himself in the foods and culinary traditions of other cultures like Rick Steves or Michael Pollan. With his love of cooking and baking, expertise in social and cultural psychology, and appreciation of how design shapes experiences, pursuing a career path that blended food and culture feels that it would allow him to indulge his passions and also play to his strengths.<\/p>\n Sophie is currently living in Pittsfield Massachusetts with her toy poodle Leo. When she\u2019s not being a pillow for her dog, she spends her time listening to podcasts, playing video games, and trying new recipes.<\/p>\n She currently works full-time as the Director of Educational Programs at\u00a0CommonWealth Kitchen<\/a>, a food incubator kitchen in Boston. She is also a part-time culinary instructor for\u00a0Cambridge Center for Adult Education<\/a>\u00a0and runs her own online cooking school,\u00a0Ploy\u2019s Kitchen<\/a>. Before she came to work for CommonWealth Kitchen, she had worked\u00a0full time for Cambridge Center for Adult Education as the Program Director for Food & Wine and Business & Technology department for 7 years.<\/p>\n She truly believes in continuing education. Through the Master of Arts in Gastronomy at Boston University, she hopes to deepen and explore the holistic approach of understanding fundamental food issues and hope to find a new research technique for practical implementation. She believes that we can transform the local food economy through diverse local food businesses.<\/p>\n To Surabhi, \u00a0food always meant comfort and nourishment, whether as a child in her grandmother\u2019s and mother\u2019s kitchen or as an adult, providing the same sustenance for her family.<\/p>\n Despite a successful and demanding career in corporate healthcare, she spends her spare time pouring over various food-related books and articles. Like many others, she found herself reflecting and contemplating life\u2019s choices during the recent pandemic lockdown. As anybody who has been down the road of what they want to do with their life mid-career can attest to, it is at times fraught with uncertainty and misgivings.<\/p>\n After taking a food writing course one summer on a whim, it was as if that fog of uncertainty had suddenly lifted; food writing allowed her to experience her interest in food beyond reading books and articles. And now, being part of BU\u2019s Gastronomy program, the jigsaw puzzle of \u201cwhat\u2019s next\u201d has started to piece itself together, allowing her to learn from and grow alongside fellow food enthusiasts and professionals, embarking on a more meaningful and rewarding journey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We are welcoming a bumper crop of new Gastronomy and Food Studies students for the fall semester. Enjoy getting to know a few of them here. Andrea Catania was born, bred, and buttered in the Syracuse, New York area. From a young age she witnessed the influence of food in small moments. Then, as she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2776,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10446"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2776"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10446"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10450,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10446\/revisions\/10450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"\/gastronomyblog\/files\/2022\/08\/Adam-Engstrom-477x636.jpg\")
Adam Engstrom<\/strong>\u2018s grandmother was a depression era assistant pastry chef at a school and was quite accomplished in the kitchen by all accounts. Unfortunately, she passed away while he was only three \u2013 far too young to benefit from her tutelage in the kitchen; however, despite that, he strongly believes that she still managed to embune some of her culinary magic into the family. This magic filtered down to him and kindled a passion for food and the culinary arts, and he feels like he summons some of it whenever he uses some of her old bakeware. Outside the kitchen, he is constantly seeking out novel cultural culinary experiences, reading about the history of foods and foodways, collecting more cookbooks and recipes than he could realistically get through in a lifetime, and researching his family\u2019s culinary history.<\/p>\n
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Sophie Landa<\/strong> (She\/Her) has been in love with food from the moment she arrived into this world. No matter what would be going on, Sophie was happiest with a snack in her hand and friends\/ family to share it with. After watching an episode of Anthony Bourdain\u2019s No Reservations that took place in Osaka Japan, Sophie\u2019s interest in Japanese food and culture was sparked and culminated in a college graduation trip to Japan in 2019. That incredible trip completely changed her life and she began taking steps to attempt to live in Japan. That was when the pandemic hit. As life came to a halt, Sophie once again found herself watching travel and food shows. She became particularly fascinated by the Netflix show Taco Chronicles, especially during the portions where they would discuss the history behind a particular dish. This sudden fascination with the history of recipes caused a spark to light in her, and she began to ruminate on what she wanted to do in the future. After a year of careful deliberation, Sophie decided to apply for the Boston University Food Studies Graduate Certificate Program. Sophie is delighted to be a part of this exciting community, and is hoping to use her interest (and degree from Bard College) in theater and performance to help share the stories and experiences of those who create and enjoy food.<\/p>\n
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Ploy Khunisorn<\/strong> is passionate about food, education, entrepreneurship, equity, and sustainability. Ploy is a native of Thailand. She went to Suan Dusit International Culinary School while she was working as a financial analyst in Bangkok. In 2012, she came to the USA to do a master\u2019s degree in Sustainability at Harvard University and a master\u2019s degree in Education at Cambridge College.<\/p>\n
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Erica Lewy<\/strong>\u00a0has always been creative. Her middle school idea of an exciting New Year\u2019s Eve was preparing a lavish feast from the Silver Palate Cookbook, complete with fruit-stuffed Cornish hens, so it was probably inevitable she ended up here. She earned her undergraduate degree from RISD in painting and has spent over fifteen years working as a marketing professional in higher education. For her, food brings to mind family, traditions, and memories. She is interested in exploring how and why food is so evocative, how food plays a role in forming traditions, and how changing societal dietary restrictions affect those traditions and memories. When she is not at work, she is usually in her kitchen; or out walking the trails of New England.<\/p>\n
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Born and raised in India, Surabhi Supekar<\/strong> now calls the United States her home. Completing her Master\u2019s in Industrial\/Organizational Psychology, she has been a process improvement and project management professional for over a decade.<\/p>\n