New York City
Katherine Alford has had an extensive and varied career in food, from funky health food and coffee bars in California, to Culinary School in France and time behind the stove in New York’s top restaurants, like the 4-star Quilted Giraffe, where she was sous chef. She was a greenmarket manager, the director of Peter Kump’s New York Cooking School (now Institute of Culinary Education) and the culinary writer for the award-winning Union Square Cookbook.
Alford spent the last 20 years at the Food Network were she developed the in-house content brand Food Network Kitchen. Ultimately, as the senior vice president of culinary, she led the team of culinary professionals that supported the network’s programming on-air, online and in print, as well as brand extension such as cookbooks and a full line of cookware and lifestyle products. She was intimately involved in the success of Food Network Magazine, the award-winning and top-selling epicurean magazine.
She serves on the Board of Chefs Collaborative and is a trustee of the New York Quarterly Meeting (Quakers). Inspired by her late mother’s journey with dementia, she is working on a project on food and memory.