Aida Mollenkamp
Encyclopedia
Early life
Aida grew up in Southern California and attended Rolling Hills Country Day and Chadwick SchoolChadwick School
Chadwick School is a nonsectarian independent K-12 day school located on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Los Angeles County, California.-History:...
in Los Angeles. Before she got interested in cooking, she played soccer, did classical ballet, and other extracurricular activities including music and volunteering. In high school, a skiing accident rendered her temporarily unable to dance and she turned to cooking as a means of expressing herself creatively.
Education and career
Aida attended the Cornell Hotel School and graduated with a B.S.Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
in hospitality management
Hospitality management
Hospitality management is the academic study of the hospitality industry. A degree in Hospitality management is often conferred from either a university college dedicated to the studies of hospitality management or a business school with a department in hospitality management studies...
from Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
. Following this, she worked in hospitality real estate consulting at Ernst & Young
Ernst & Young
Ernst & Young is one of the largest professional services networks in the world and one of the "Big Four" accountancy firms, along with Deloitte, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers ....
, then moved to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, living between Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
for two years. She attended culinary school and received a Grand Diplôme from Le Cordon Bleu
Le Cordon Bleu
Le Cordon Bleu is the world's largest hospitality education institution, with 35 schools on five continents serving 20,000 students annually. Its primary education focus is on hospitality management and the culinary arts...
in Paris in 2004. Over the years, she has worked at several restaurants and hotels in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
(including Chez Melange, California Pizza Kitchen
California Pizza Kitchen
California Pizza Kitchen , known within the food industry as CPK, is a casual dining restaurant chain that specializes in California-style pizza...
, and the Hotel Bel-Air, in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
). Following her return to the U.S. in 2005, Mollenkamp became an editor at the San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
-based CHOW.com online food magazine.
Food Network and Cooking Channel
Aida's first Food NetworkFood Network
Food Network is a television specialty channel that airs both one-time and recurring programs about food and cooking. Scripps Networks Interactive owns 70 percent of the network, with Tribune Company controlling the remaining 30 percent....
series, the interactive program Ask Aida
Ask Aida
Ask Aida is an interactive cooking show on the Food Network hosted by Aida Mollenkamp. The show began airing on August 2, 2008. On Ask Aida, Noah Starr serves as the "tech guru" sorting through then asking the many culinary questions sent to Mollenkamp via email, text, phone calls and video. Also...
, began airing on August 2, 2008 and has filmed three seasons. Her second show, FoodCrafters
FoodCrafters
FoodCrafters is a food travel show on the Cooking Channel hosted by Aida Mollenkamp. The show debuted on May 31, 2010 and is currently in its second season. It airs on Tuesday evenings on the Cooking Channel. FoodCrafters is produced for Cooking Channel by Citizen Pictures....
for Food Network’s new sister network, Cooking Channel
Cooking Channel
Cooking Channel is a television specialty channel that airs recurring programs about food and cooking, owned by Scripps Networks Interactive. It is a spinoff of Food Network, also owned by SNI, but focuses more on instructional shows rather than "reality style" and contest programming that Food...
, debuted May 31, 2010. In FoodCrafters, she leaves the kitchen to uncover handmade food finds from around the nation
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Family
Mollenkamp's mother is Italian AmericanItalian American
An Italian American , is an American of Italian ancestry. The designation may also refer to someone possessing Italian and American dual citizenship...
and her stepmother is French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
, both of whom helped foster her passion for cooking while she was growing up. Aida's cooking style is influenced by her family's origins yet it also was shaped by the multi-ethnic nature of Los Angeles, where she grew up. She has prepared recipes on her show inspired by her family, including her sister Ivy and their grandmother. Aida's brother, Christophe, was shown on the Dear Food Network Grilling episode titled "Grilling in Paradise." Her sister Ivy serves as her public relations manager. Aida currently lives in California.
External links
- Food Network biography
- Aida Mollenkamp at the Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
- Aida Mollenkamp biography
- Aida Mollenkamp official website
- Aida Mollenkamp Twitter page
- Aida Mollenkamp Facebook Page