Meet Our Chef Instructors

Our Chef Instructors bring people together through the art of home cooking, making good food accessible to all. They know that cooking is more than recipes—it’s about nourishment, connection, and the joy of sharing a meal.

Annelies Zijderveld

Annelies Zijderveld teaches with a California twist, bringing the brightness of Bay Area produce onto the plate. Proudly Mexican-Bolivian-Dutch American, she specializes in Mexican (including TexMex + CalMex) and Bolivian cooking classes and private classes. If you're looking to eat vegetarian/vegan, check out one of her eat more meatless cooking classes with ideas for omnivores and plant-based eaters. Author of Steeped: Recipes Infused with Tea, a Los Angeles Times notable book, she writes about food for epicurious, the Kitchn, Simply Recipes, EatingWell, and others.

Camila Loew

Camila Loew holds a Ph.D. in Humanities and is a Certified Nutrition Consultant. Originally from Buenos Aires, she grew up in California and has lived alongside the Mediterranean for over two decades. She believes that the best cooking relies on simple preparations with outstanding ingredients. Her love for teaching in all formats runs deep: Camila founded and directs Sobremesa Culinary Tours as well as the Food Studies & Gastronomy International Program at the University of Barcelona. Camila has been sharing her love of cooking at 18 Reasons since 2014. Camila's specialties include regional Spanish and Mediterranean cuisines, though she has a soft spot for all things Japanese and is an Omotesenke tea practitioner. Her cookbook The Sobremesa Cookbook was published in 2020. 

Instagram: @sobremesa_life 
Website: www.sobremesa.life

CJ Villareal

CJ Villareal's love for food began at age six, when she insisted on baking her own birthday cake wearing nothing but a red plastic chef's hat. Her past lives include baker, line cook, Arabic professor, translator, intercultural dialogue facilitator, and corporate leadership trainer. As an American of Filipino and white European heritage, CJ is endlessly curious about the ways food connects us to culture, place, and identity. Years spent living in Spain and the Arab world deepened that appreciation, and now she teaches cooking as both a practical skill and an invitation into new cultures and perspectives. 

Gaby Maeda

Gaby Maeda is a Hawai'i-born and raised chef in the Bay Area. She moved to San Francisco in 2008 to attend culinary school at California Culinary Academy. That led to an externship, which turned into a five-year stint at Restaurant Gary Danko where she worked every station and gained the fundamental knowledge of California cuisine. The next chapter involved an almost decade-long tenure at State Bird Provisions, where she advanced from line cook to Executive Chef. During this time, she was nominated as a finalist for the James Beard Foundation's Rising Star Chef of the Year Award in 2020 and Food & Wine's Best New Chefs in 2021.

After leaving the restaurant, she became the head chef for the nationally acclaimed queer cocktail bar, Friends and Family, in Oakland, CA owned and operated by Blake Cole. During this time, she was a semifinalist for the James Beard Foundation's award for Best Chef: California in 2025. Since Friends and Family closed, Gaby continues to work alongside Blake on pop-up events & collab dinners while building the framework for their next project, Frede, in San Francisco. 

Gracie Schatz

Gracie Schatz has been in the food industry for over fifteen years. In her career, Gracie has worked in a variety of places: as a baker and private chef in Eugene, OR, farming and cooking in Italy, raising pigs in the Sierra Foothills, butchering at the Fatted Calf in San Francisco, managing Avedano’s in Bernal Heights, cooking at Bay Area restaurants Molina and Cala and her own pop-up restaurant, Bread and Bones. In Eugene, she started her own food justice nonprofit, Marigold Cooking Collective. After working with 18 Reasons as a guest instructor for the past 7 years, Gracie has decided to move from Eugene to San Francisco and join us as our head Chef. Her dream is to never stop learning about delicious food, to never stop exploring the many nuanced ways that food brings us joy, connection to culture, identity, seasons and community. 18 Reasons feels like the perfect place to explore this dream and she is so excited to be here!

Helena Zindel

Helena believes everyone deserves access to nutritious and affordable food. She grew up in Sacramento and learned to cook from her parents, baking her way through her first cookbook at age ten. Her time as a chef and educator at Soil Born Farms shaped her commitment to teaching in community settings. She later worked with the International Rescue Committee to support newly arrived refugees and deepen her focus on food access. She holds a Sociology degree from Whitman College and brings a social science lens to her food justice work. Off the clock, she makes big pots of beans, bakes sourdough for neighbors, reads cookbooks, bikes JFK, befriends cats, and chases super burritos in the Mission. She brings steady passion for good food and community to 18 Reasons.

Henry Hsu

Oakland dumpling maker, Henry Hsu’s past identities have included public health advocate, architect, and designer. He immersed himself in the local Bay Area food scene working at Oakland tofu maker, Hodo Foods for over a decade and most recently spent the past year working at Dumpling Club in San Francisco.  Henry’s perspectives on food are shaped by his Taiwanese heritage, Gulf Coast upbringing, Midwestern education and years of living in Latin America. From immigration to assimilation to seeking cultural identity through his food heritage, he began seeking out what Taiwanese food means to him through cooking, teaching, sharing and storytelling. He’s learned that cultural identity in food is simply not as monolithic and neatly squared away as we’d all like it to be! He also leads food tours, teaches dumpling making, hosts Taiwanese pop-up dinners & occasionally you can find him working a farm stand at a local market!

Instragram: @eatoramasama

Jennifer Altman

Jennifer Altman began her culinary journey at age eight, baking and cooking for her family and friends. After a career in science, she followed her passion to become a pastry chef. She loves anything to do with food—cooking, gardening, recipe development, and especially teaching. In a nod to many of her students' baking anxieties, Jennifer demystifies the process by teaching baking fundamentals, allowing her students to return home with the confidence to create their own masterpieces. Jennifer's specialties include baking and desserts.

Justin Fertitta

Justin Fertitta began working in professional kitchens at the age of 15. After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America, Justin honed his craft in the trenches of the renowned New York City restaurant scene. Justin traveled extensively throughout Southeast Asia, exploring the many regional cuisines and wet markets, where he draws much of his culinary inspiration. Throughout his career as a chef, teaching those around him has always been a primary focus and passion. Justin's specialties include fish and chicken butchery, Southeast Asian cuisines, and private classes and dinners at 18 Reasons.

Kausar Ahmed

Kausar Ahmed is a culinary educator, author of Karachi Kitchen, entrepreneur, food stylist, recipe developer, and storyteller whose work celebrates the power of food to bring people together. Born and raised in Karachi, Pakistan, she grew up in a culture where meals connected communities across traditions and backgrounds. Now based in Seattle, she teaches cooking classes, develops recipes, and creates culinary content that celebrates the cuisine of Pakistan alongside diverse global traditions. Through her teaching, writing, and her mother-daughter food brand Karachi Kitchen, Kausar is passionate about empowering communities through food education and inspiring confidence in the kitchen.

Kirstin Jackson

Kirstin Jackson, author of It’s Not You, it’s Brie: Unwrapping America’s Unique Culture of Cheese, is a cheesemaking teacher, wine and cheese educator, and writer. She loves teaching people how to make ricotta and creamy burrata pillows as much as she adores pairing her new favorite local cheese with wine. She blames her parents who took her on trips to the California dairy country at a very young age for feeding her current obsession. Kirstin's specialties include wine and cheese tasting seminars and cheesemaking classes.

Instagram: @kirstinjackson1
Twitter: @itsbrieblog
Learn more: itsnotyouitsbrie.com

Kitiya Ditpare

Kitiya Ditpare's cooking starts in the South of Thailand, where she spent her childhood and where she still returns on every trip home. She learned to cook in her family's restaurant kitchen, came to the U.S. in 2005, and spent a decade in the corporate world before following her passion to start Kitiya. She now runs Kitiya in San Francisco, catering across the Bay Area and making curry pastes and sauces in small batches so home cooks can build those flavors themselves.

Linda Tay Esposito

Linda Tay Esposito is a teaching chef whose food represents a tribute and a commitment to the authenticity of the cuisines of the Pacific Rim. For the last 18 years, Linda has shared her passion and knowledge of South East Asian cuisines by using approachable techniques that students can recreate at home.  Linda teaches at 18 Reasons and Milk Street Kitchen. Previously, she taught at the San Francisco Cooking School, Cavallo Point, and several other cooking schools in the Bay Area.

Outside of teaching, Linda is a food business consultant with a focus on placemaking and building equitable food systems through the intersectional lens of food, sustainability and equity.  She currently leads the food program at the Presidio Tunnel Tops.  She led the development of La Cocina Municipal Marketplace, an innovative model of conscious, community-led development, offering economic opportunity for low income, women entrepreneurs, while creating jobs and delicious, affordable food for the community.  Her past experience includes growing Hodo Foods from an artisanal producer to nationwide distribution, as well as a long career in product development and marketing in consumer technology, banking and CPG.   

Linda is a member of the Good Food Foundation Advisory Board, and sits on their equity task force.  In her free time, she plants hard-to-find Asian herbs at the community garden at Fort Mason.

Instagram: @flavors_explosion

Marie Brennan

Marie Brennan is a vegetable enthusiast, keen fermenter and an avid traveler. Her explorations are fueled by the desire to find her next pantry staple and learn yet another way to use onions. Her culinary focus is vegetarian, Californian cuisine that is imbued with global flavors. Her classes are known for their healthyish and punchy flavors as well as her non-dogmatic and enthusiastic approach to food. Marie graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a degree in Dietetics and in 2014 moved to California to attend culinary arts school. She stayed for the produce and the sunshine. Marie lives in the Sierra foothills and works as an educator, consultant, and recipe developer.

You can learn more about Marie at www.hedonistinmoderation.com

Meghna Agarwal

Through her company, Crimson Kitchen, Meghna Agarwal teaches Indian cooking classes, caters parties, runs her private chef business, and occasionally feeds the hungry souls of San Francisco's numerous startups. When asked about her culinary background, Meghna notes with a smile that she comes from a culture that has been focused on food for the past five thousand years! With a heritage of food as the epicenter of most occasions, she is driven to find and replicate the countless traditional tastes of India - from Mumbai's modern restaurants to the street food of tiny villages. 

Meghna regularly visits India, where she works with Indian restaurateurs and chefs to keep abreast of their evolving cuisine. Upon return to her San Francisco kitchen, she infuses the latest trends with ancient traditions and techniques to pass along to her students. Meghna can now be found teaching cooking classes in collaboration with 18 Reasons, San Francisco Cooking School, The Civic Kitchen, and her own company Crimson Kitchen. You can find more information on her at www.crimsonkitchen.com or follow her food journey on instagram @crimsonkitchen. 

Molly Pam

Molly Pam is a San Francisco-based pastry chef. After studying pastry at the French Culinary Institute in New York City, she honed her skills with renowned cake designer Collette Peters and at Momofuku Milk Bar. She expanded her expertise to include catering, private chef services and teaching cooking classes. Molly loves to share her passion for cooking and baking with her students.

Paulette Tran

Paulette Tran's cooking and culinary background is rooted in their upbringing as a first generation Vietnamese, discovering their grandparents' backyard in Eastside San Jose.  From the herbs, plants, and fruits to making nuoc mam at 9 years old, it was clear that cooking was not only a life skill, but a passion and a love language.  Paulette later merged cooking with their social justice work in education, and began empowering youth through exploring food options and teaching cooking skills. They also have created curriculum and taught others how to guide young neurodivergent adults to menu plan, grocery shop, and cook their own meals by following a recipe. Currently, they still teach culinary to high schoolers in Oakland, while taking care of their cafe and farmers market stand, 3 Bottled Fish.

Polly Sang

Polly Sang was born in Busan, South Korea and immigrated to Queens, NY, with her family as a young child. As her mother worked, Polly put together the family’s meals; as an adult, she attended culinary school and worked in restaurants in NYC and California. Mentoring and teaching cooks was her favorite part of being a chef. For the last 3 years, she’s taught full-time, covering everything from culinary basics to elaborate meals. Teaching Korean cuisine is a way to share her heritage while building a community of home cooks!

Viola Buitoni

Viola Buitoni, chef instructor and food writer, was born in Rome and raised in Perugia, Italy. With stories and knowledge from six generations, her dishes cross the best of California agriculture with the finest Italian food imports. After moving to the US to attend NYU, Viola started Buitoni & Garretti, a catering kitchen and Italian fine foods shop in New York City. She later moved to San Francisco where she began lecturing and teaching Italian food tradition workshops at the SF Italian Cultural Institute and Italian Consulate. She teaches Italian cooking remotely for Boston-based Milk Street, and in person for 18Reasons and The Civic Kitchen in San Francisco. She leads immersive foraging and cooking workshops in off-the-beaten-path Italy. She has contributed to La Cucina Italiana US and to italysegreta.com. Her opera prima, Italy by Ingredient, is due out in fall 2023 (Rizzoli). In 2020 the President of the Italian Republic awarded her the title of Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia for her work to further the culture and business of Italian food. She lives in SF’s Mission District with her husband, son, and tiny dog.

Zoé McLaughlin

Zoé McLaughlin was born in Paris and raised in San Francisco. She graduated from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and worked in restaurants in France while she wrote and published her first cookbook – a collection of family recipes influenced by her multicultural upbringing. She now lives in San Francisco, where she works in the non-profit culinary world and hosts online cooking demonstrations. She has a passion for bringing together the diverse flavors and culinary traditions of the Bay Area with the time tested techniques of classical French cooking.

Instagram: @zoesfrenchtable