CIA Alumni Bio
What is your favorite dish to create?
It changes all the time. Bo ssam is always fun to make, and I just started getting into baking bread. I’m still very much an amateur but I have a very healthy sourdough starter in my fridge!
Describe a day in your life at your job/business.
Every single day is different. Depending on the week/time of year I could be helping coordinate logistics and menus for an offsite event, creating an itinerary for a food festival, planning on how to promote a campaign on social media, or tying bows on 250 takeaway boxes for New Year’s Eve! Never a dull moment…
Tell us about a few highlights of your career.
I’ve been lucky enough to have had a few very different professional experiences in both the back and front of the house since I graduated, which has definitely opened up a lot of different doors. Helping open Harlan Social in Stamford, CT was a giant accomplishment given how young I was. Working at USHG definitely takes the cake so far. It’s such a special place filled with brilliant and kind people.
Do you have any advice for future or current CIA students?
Sounds so cliche, but enjoy every single moment and take it all in! It goes by SO fast. Ask questions, get involved, go out and explore the Hudson Valley, get a job off campus if you can. You’re surrounded by a plethora of culinary masterminds… use it to your advantage!
What’s your best memory at the CIA?
I honestly think I had the best group of friends anyone could have asked for. We all started on the same day and graduated together, which was rare! We got to spend hours on end every single day together learning how to cook… how cool is that? Chef Anita Eisenhauer’s Cuisines of the Mediterranean class strikes several memories for me… needless to say we all partied hard and celebrated the night of our last class! The trip to Spain during the Bachelor’s program was also a very special, once in a lifetime opportunity. We were so spoiled!
Beth Wisniewski majored in culinary arts at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. She is the executive assistant to the Chief Culture Office and Chief of Staff at Union Square Hospitality Group in New York City.