Our Team
COOK! is many people. The program thrives through the talents, skills, and passions of our staff, advisors, and students.
Ankit Patel - Owner & Director of Operations
Ankit Patel is an entrepreneur with a passion for food. He grew up in Oregon, working in the family hotel business. After seeing Ratatouille, Ankit got inspired. He set off on his own culinary journey, staging at Flour & Water, Lazy Bear, Quince, Al’s Place, Roses Luxury (DC), Zaytinya (DC), and Le Pigeon (Portland). He now lives in San Francisco and is excited to put his mind and heart into a business that educates youth about cooking, eating, and the healthy lifecycles of food.
Celeste Cooper
Summer Camp Director, Chef & Teacher
Celeste began cooking and baking at an early age with the matriarchs in her family and started working in restaurants at age 15. She has worked in many professional kitchens and loves the excitement and creativity that goes into making food and feeding others. She attended the California Culinary Academy for Baking and Pastry Arts in 2004 to round out her experience and has owned a few food businesses in the SF Bay Area. Working with the young people in her community around food and how food plays a part in community health is a passion she has been able to foster within the COOK! Program. She started out as a chef instructor in 2014 and is now the Director of Operations!
Paige Reinis
Director of Online Learning, Chef & Teacher
Paige found her way into the professional kitchen after working for nearly two decades in the film and theatre industry. She is a graduate from the Institute of Culinary Education and has worked all over NY in kitchens big and small as a chef and caterer. She is SUPER excited to be part of the COOK! team, showing kids how fun and not scary cooking can be!
Nikolos Johnson
Chef & Teacher
Nikolos wandered into the COOK! kitchen in 2017 and never left. He brings his love for food, his great sense of humor, and his gift of kindness to the table when he teaches. When not working with COOK! Programs, Nikolos is a new father, caterer, and chef.
Francisco Machado
Chef & Teacher
Francisco “Cisco” fell in love with food early on. While working his way through college in Southern California, he became an apprentice at a local French kitchen. It was there that he developed the skills required to launch his culinary career. He has worked across the United States both as a Restaurant Chef and as an Executive Pastry Chef. In 1996, Cisco won the Bay Area’s Regional James Beard Competition with his creation, the “Chocolate and Port Torte.” Before starting his own catering company, he was Executive Chef for All About Food, a catering company based in Emeryville. Cisco has been involved with COOK! since the beginning.
Samantha Smith
Advisor,
Intrepid Forager, Chef
Samantha’s culinary style is an amalgamation of her interest in culture, creativity, survival and love. For her, food is a way to connect; cooking is energizing and inspiring. Being a chef is a path of curiosity and experimentation and Samantha’s cooking and teaching style emanates these core values. Samantha was the lead teacher at COOK! for many years. She is now living in Croatia and helping to conceptualize and build the COOK! Global Program.
Elazar Sontag
Advisor, Former Student, Food-Writer
Elazar is a cook and food writer from Oakland, California. He is a former COOK! student. He’s now a staff writer at Eater, and was previously an associate editor at Serious Eats. His writing appears in The Washington Post, Bon Appétit, New York Magazine, Epicurious, Vice, and Civil Eats, among other print and web publications. He loves a good sweet potato and a bad diner omelet.
