Jennifer Clair is the founder of Home Cooking New York, a recreational cooking school for home cooks in New York City. Before launching the school in 2002, she was a Recipe Editor for The Wall Street Journal and a Food Editor at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSLO), where she developed cookbooks and managed the Cooking & Entertaining department of marthastewart.com.
Prior to MSLO, she worked as an editor in the cookbook division of William Morrow & Company and at Saveur magazine. She graduated from Peter Kump’s New York Cooking School (now ICE) in 1998 after receiving a full James Beard Foundation scholarship. Jennifer is also the author of Six Basic Cooking Techniques: Culinary Essentials for the Home Cook based on the school’s most popular cooking class, and the host of the (former) cooking podcast, Kitchen Radio.
John Scoff joined Home Cooking New York in 2006. After 15 years of restaurant work, culminating most recently as Executive Chef of a low country bistro in South Carolina, John continues to believe strongly in working with local, fresh ingredients. John’s apprenticeships under several highly-regarded, award-winning chefs gave him the culinary expertise and the sense of professionalism he needed to become a well-respected restaurant chef.
In 2004, John truly found his calling when he accepted a position as Executive Chef-Instructor at a recreational cooking school in historic downtown Charleston. As a teacher there, he discovered how much he enjoys sharing his passion for and knowledge of really good cooking.
Susan Streit Sherman joined Home Cooking New York in 2010. Originally from Michigan, Susan moved to New York to attend the French Culinary Institute. She began her career working as a private chef in both Manhattan and the Hamptons. For five years she managed the School of Recreational Cooking at the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE), and previously worked in the test kitchens at Good Housekeeping, Martha Stewart Living, and Real Simple magazines.
Susan returned to work as a private chef following the birth of her daughter, Leia, in 2016. She specializes in developing seasonal recipes and you can enjoy her recipes and culinary wisdom via her website Crate Cooking.
Erica Wides joined HCNY in 2013. She is a chef, teacher, food media host and writer and commercial actor. Prior to joining our team was a senior instructor at ICE for fifteen years and spent a decade cooking in the NYC restaurant world.
She’s the creator and host of @Thechefsmartypants on Instagram and TikTok (1M followers!), and TheChefsmartypants Academy on SubStack. She’s also the creator, star and producer of @FunnyPeopleMakingFood, a food/comedy mashup series, on YouTube.
Sooninah (Sue) Gonsalves joined Home Cooking New York in 2015 and is the lead instructor for our kid’s culinary programming. Born and raised in Guyana, South America, Sue came to the United States in 2001. Soon after she arrived, she earned her Culinary Arts and Pastry Arts degree from the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE).
After graduation, Sue worked at Luxia, an Italian-American restaurant for 3 years, and then found her calling back at ICE where she has been teaching recreational cooking classes for the past 15 years.
Albert Nguyen joined Home Cooking New York in 2024. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he graduated from the culinary program at Johnson & Wales University in 2010. He has worked in the kitchens of some of NYC’s most famous kitchens: Momofuku, Ma Peche, Del Posto, Flora Bar, and most recently as the Executive Chef at Hanoi House, before pivoting to teaching.
Al also teaches culinary at the Lower East Side Girls Club. He is deeply passionate and knowledgeable about food and cooking, and values teaching his students how to cook smart, efficiently, and confidently in the kitchen. Al’s other hobbies include gardening and composting, which are obvious extensions of his passion for food.
Netanya Rommel joined Home Cooking in 2021. Originally from Seattle, she spent all of her spare time working as a volunteer at The Pantry, a local cooking studio, while curating a community supper club called Common Table. In 2019, she moved to New York City to attend culinary school at Hudson County, specializing in pastry. She is passionate about helping people have more confidence in the kitchen, sharing culinary history tidbits, and building community through food.