The Art of Cooking

A chance meeting with a restaurant-owning friend launched Amelia Hall ‘03 from an art background—she has a degree in printmaking from Cooper Union—into the food world. Amelia, who’s landed a series of plum spots in hip kitchens around the city since, says this isn’t as much of a departure as it seems. “I really appreciate how there are always interesting things coming in to the kitchen, and there’s a constant opportunity to turn them around into something beautiful to offer people.” Amelia says cultural changes in the last decade have made that career more rewarding than it once was. 

“Traditionally, food was kind of a male-oriented pirate ship, and women were not welcomed, especially not in a creative role. But that’s shifted. Every kitchen I’ve worked in has had a huge female presence.” Aside from the countless hours she spent in the still life set-up on the 7th floor (and the cafeteria’s “unholy” raspberry bars), Amelia cites one other supremely valuable facet of a Brearley education. “Algebra!” she exclaims. “You think you’ll never need it but I scale recipes every day, and consider myself lucky to have learned it so well.”