My Story

Hi, I’m Ronna (“rah-na”). 

I am the founder and chef of Purple Kale Kitchenworks, a small, but mighty cooking school near the Brooklyn waterfront. I am also author of The Nimble Cook.  I have been cooking and writing about food for twenty-five years.

Before starting my own cooking school, I mentored many professional cooks from the helms of some beloved New York City restaurants. As a young cook, I worked summers abroad, in France, Greece, Spain, and Sicily. 

But in spite of—and perhaps because of—my full work life, I had little practice cooking at home. For special occasions, I’d put together ambitious meals to feed a crowd, but I’d rarely cook for my tiny household of two.

So when two became four, I learned quickly that my professional cooking skills were no match for the ceaseless demands of new parenthood. In short order, I began to fail miserably, and continuously, at making the humblest dishes. I inevitably under-salted pasta, if I didn’t overcook it.  I burned plenty of vegetables left steaming in a long-forgotten pot.   I was tired and distracted. ALL. THE. TIME.

My reckoning was clear and humbling, but at least pushed me in new directions.  I began to adapt familiar restaurant practices to the home and to cook for my family with renewed determination. As I did this, I helped friends become more efficient, organized, less wasteful and more confident in the kitchen and, in the process, I discovered I loved to teach.  My first classes sold out within minutes by word of mouth. In 2010, I decided to step away from restaurant work entirely to focus my energies on codifying and fine tuning this instruction.  My “nimble” way of cooking everyday became the foundation of all Purple Kale Kitchenworks classes, and eventually the content for my first cookbook.  

These days, you’ll find me teaching at my studio or to students on-line, testing dishes for new catering menus, brushing up on food policy, or browsing seed catalogues.  I’m never far from my salvaged Garland stove, a well-stained coffee mug, or my faithful sharpening steel.

Want to collaborate? Ask about a class? Say hello?

Reach out anytime: ronna@purplekale.com