Chef Lisa graduated culinary school at Kendall College Evanston in 2003. Before Lisa became a chef instructor at The Chopping Block, she worked in numerous restaurants around Chicago including Naha (where she met her husband), Spiaggia, Custom House and opened Acanto in 2014. When not in the kitchen you can usually find Lisa curled up with a great bottle of wine and a good book or eating out at a new restaurant with her husband.
Recent Posts
Liquid Aminos
One of my very favorite classes to teach at The Chopping Block is our Flavor Dynamics class. In this class, we explore taste versus flavor. It is an in-depth look of all the five basic tastes: salty, ...
When I want to learn, teach, or write about a new culinary technique, I tend to go down various rabbit holes of online research, cookbooks, recipe testing, and trial and error to figure out how to ...
You can’t get very far in America without running into a donut shop. We have embraced the history of this dessert found all over the world and made it into our own. Of course, doughnuts as we know ...
The title of this blog isn't just a throwback to the 80’s, it's a deep dive into one of my favorite root vegetables: the potato. This tuber can be utilized in a multitude of different ways, which ...
I love making lasagna, and it has been a Christmas tradition in our house for as long as I can remember. For Christmas Eve, we always celebrate the Feast of the Seven Fishes, but on Christmas day, we ...
One of the things I love most about cooking is serving other people my food. I love to see people enjoying what I have created and hopefully inspire them to make something of their own. It brings me ...
I have officially jumped on the grazing table and boards bandwagon! This trend of gluttony and gratuitous amounts of foods sprawled throughout entire tables that is meant for people to nibble on and ...
Thanksgiving has come and gone, and although things may have looked differently this year, there are some things that remain the same: leftovers! All month long, The Chopping Block has hosted a wide ...
I have never been obsessed like some people are with pumpkin spiced lattes, pies, candles and other things of that nature. Don’t get me wrong; I love those flavors all year round, and pumpkin pie is ...
There is nothing I like to eat more than an all-in-one, quick, delicious “bowl” for lunch or dinner. The possibilities are endless when it come to flavor profiles, textures, and what you can mix in. ...
