Episode 2 Black Foodways
Chef Therese Nelson is a proud Newark, NJ native where she was born and raised in its historic Weequaic section. She is a suma cume laude graduate of Johnson and Wales University where she holds degrees in Food Service Management 04’ and Culinary Arts 02’.
Therese's culinary career began in 2004 and spans the east coast where she trained and worked her way through the kitchens of major hotel groups from Hilton and Marriott to Orient Express and Four Seasons. In 2006 she joined the all female team of Get Em' Girl Inc. brands where her culinary talents were used as recipe consultant for the company's 2 branded cookbooks The Get Em' Girl's Guide to the Power of Cuisine and The Get Em Girl's Guide to the Perfect Get Together, as food editor for the brand's lifestyle website Get Em' Girls.com, and acted as the executive chef for the company's in house boutique catering company where her food graced the tables of global brands such as Black Enterprise, Carol's Daughter, BET, MTV, WEEN, Verizon and RocNation. In 2014 The company dissolved and Chef Nelson focused her culinary career in the private sector working as a private chef for a small list of clients, writing freelance for publications like First We Feast and Taste Cooking, and consulting with small catering and restaurant businesses throughout the tristate area.
In addition to her culinary life Therese is the founder and culinary curator of Black Culinary History, an organization she founded in 2008 as a way to connect chefs of color to preserve black heritage throughout the African culinary diaspora, to promote and share the work of her colleagues, and to preserve the legacy being constructed by black chefs for this next generation.
Among her professional affiliations Chef Nelson is a member of Eta Sigma Delta, Women Chefs and Restaurateurs, Southern Foodways Alliance, Equity At The Table, International Association of Culinary Professionals, National Association of Professional Women, and the Culinary Historians of New York. She currently resided in East Harlem, NY where she enjoys being a part of that community's rich and diverse culinary landscape both personally and professionally.