MEET THE KITCHEN ON FIRE CHEFS
Kitchen on Fire offers hands-on cooking experiences in Berkeley, Oakland and virtually anywhere. Since 2005, Chef Olive and professional chef instructors have been sharing their knowledge and love for cooking through public classes, team-building and corporate wellness events cooking recipes made with high quality ingredients and traditional cooking methods. Lisa Miller teaches classes with a wellness focus, promoting healthy living.
Meet our team below!
OLIVIER SAID
Chef Olivier (“Olive”) Said is the founder and co-owner of Kitchen on Fire and one of the East Bay’s most popular culinary personalities. Chef Olive teaches many of the Kitchen on Fire classes, leads team-building and private events, and is also a Nutrition Professional.
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One of the East Bay’s popular culinary personalities, Olivier Said is the co-founder Kitchen on Fire, located in the heart of Berkeley’s culinary district in North Berkeley and in Oakland.
Prior to opening KoF 2006, Olivier Said spent eight years as an owner and bar manager of Berkeley’s popular Cesar Tapas Bar. He has also co-authored three books – CESAR: Recipes from a Tapas Bar, named one of the Top 10 Cookbooks of 2003 by Food & Wine magazine, THE BAR: A Spirited Guide to Cocktail Alchemy and the last, Kitchen on Fire: Mastering the Art of Cooking in 12 Weeks (or Less)
Born and raised in France, he is the descendant of at least five generations of restaurateurs dating back to the early 1750s in France. Said began his career at the age of 15 in his mother’s Paris restaurant. He moved to Los Angeles in the early 1980s and worked at Ken Frank’s La Toque, one of the first restaurants in the country to feature California nouvelle cuisine. In 1987, Said returned to Paris and opened his own restaurant, the popular Texas Coyote, which included three bars and a night club. It had frequent reviews in the press. Olivier Said was a regular guest host on the number two national radio station in France, Skyrock, live from his restaurant.
“I have been a record producer, a pilot, a photographer, an artist, a cookbook author and an immigrant. My experience has spanned 3 countries on 2 continents in at least 3 languages. Despite the various detours along the way, it has been restaurants and the restaurant business that have sustained me and brought me my greatest joy and success. Restaurants have fed me, taught me, borne me up through times of trouble, and kept me humble in times of excess. I suppose you could say I have the restaurant business in my blood, or maybe it’s just all that accumulated fat and wine. For better or worse it has brought me to where I am today, in a cooking school. But as a Chinese person once told me in a fortune cookie (I don’t remember who he was but I remember the menu), ‘The journey is the reward’, that pretty much sums up my life.” – Chef Olive
After returning to the States in the late 1990s, he joined the management team at Berkeley’s Cesar Tapas Bar, founded by three Chez Panisse alumni. The restaurant was an instant hit with both Berkeley food lovers and restaurant critics who raved about its unique Spanish-inspired menu and world-class wine-and-spirits list. The San Francisco Food Lover’s Guide hailed it as “one of the greatest bars in the world in terms of quality of spirits, selection, and mixology.” Among other accolades, it was voted one of the best restaurants in the Bay Area by the San Francisco Chronicle for eight years in a row, and featured in such national publications as Gourmet magazine.
After 37 years in the food business, Chef Olive decided it was time to share his vast culinary knowledge. After opening Kitchen on Fire in 2006, he enjoys teaching eager students, as well as giving back to the community. He regularly volunteers with such organizations as 18 Reasons’ Cooking Matters, St. Vincent de Paul’s Kitchen of Champions and more recently, the Bread Project, helping teaching recent immigrants to become bakers.
LISA MICHELLE MILLER, BS, NC
Lisa Miller is co-owner of Kitchen on Fire, a Nutrition Consultant and member of the National Association of Nutrition Professionals. Lisa earned a certification in Nutrition Consulting from the state licensed Bauman College, College of Holistic Nutrition and Culinary Arts in Berkeley, California.
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Lisa also has a private nutrition practice, Ocean View Nutrition.
Lisa has experience in health care, agriculture and consumer products along with years of personnel training and development.
Spending time with her grandparents on their farm as a youth, Lisa learned the value in making bread starting with home grown grains, and picking vegetables from their garden just in time for dinner. She came to understand the fundamental role that nutrients have on our bodies, and knew nutrition and wellness were her true calling.
As a lifelong athlete, and as a triathlete, she has used her nutrition knowledge to optimize performance and overall wellness. Lisa balances her passion for nutrition and cooking with biking, hiking, running, yoga, skiing, kayaking and spending time with friends and family.
Philosophy
Lisa’s nutrition philosophy is based on healthy preparation of an organic whole food diet, tailored to the needs and goals of each individual. For Lisa, nutrition has always been a lifestyle, never a ‘diet’. She believes that quality nutrition combined with an active lifestyle and positive attitude can further enhance the health of a generally healthy person and help to prevent, minimize and eliminate potential health conditions.
MATHEW (MAT) WERTLIEB
Chef Mat was trained at the Culinary Institute of America, has 15 years of fine dining experience in prominent restaurants in both San Francisco and the East Bay and has been an instructor at Kitchen on Fire since 2012.
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Biggest influences: Chef Eric Ripert and Chef Norman Levitz
Favorite dish to cook: Rabbit Sugo
Specialty: Modern Italian/Californian
Favorite thing about teaching at Kitchen on Fire: Sharing cooking secrets and eating experiences with food enthusiasts. Talking about cuisines and culinary adventures with a wide range of students.
Chef’s popular classes at Kitchen on Fire:
- Couples Night in Florence
- Asian Fusion
- Fresh Pasta workshop
- Seasonal California
- Hot and Spicy Southern Cooking
- Couples Night in Rome
Growing up in a family full of chefs and kosher caterers in New Jersey, Chef Mat has felt at home in a kitchen since childhood.
He first fell in love with the unique culinary scene of the Bay Area while working an externship at One Market Restaurant in 2000.
After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America, he spent a year and a half in Boston’s busiest restaurant, Grill 23, before the pull of Northern California’s food culture drew him back. He worked for 10 years at some of the most successful restaurants in San Francisco and Berkeley, including Lark Creek Inn, Farallon, Lalimes, and Gather.
Trips to Italy and Israel furthered his exposure and passion for the various cuisines of the world.
KEVIN HOGAN
Chef Kevin is a San Francisco native who grew up far from the Bay area. The son of a US health department administrator, Kevin got an early introduction to the foods and flavors of the world while living in France, Switzerland, Nigeria and Côte D’Ivoire. Food, the gateway to culture, was a particular fascination for him while living in foreign countries, eating in restaurants, home kitchens, and market stalls, and he learned to love new and unusual flavors.
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Kevin’s culinary interests always centered on the unique qualities of home cooked food, and he learned at an early age to prepare simple meals. High school years in Atlanta GA included summer jobs in restaurants, washing pizza pans, bussing tables, chopping onions, and making lots of biscuits, yet it was still the food coming from home kitchens in the American south that inspired Kevin’s passion for cooking.
In his years as the wine buyer for Berkeley specialty food retailer The Spanish Table, Kevin began sharing his repertoire of vernacular kitchen wisdom with customers, in passing conversation at first, then in printed recipes, newsletters and live demonstrations. The unique flavors of home-cooked food inspire Kevin’s classes at Kitchen On Fire where he has been teaching for over ten years. His classes mix historic context with practical advice to make shopping, preparing and serving delicious meals at home a source of pride and pleasure for cooks of all skill levels.
ANSARYS ANDINO
Chef Ansarys started her journey to being a pastry chef in 2006 when she had the privilege of an internship at Town, working under Pastry Chef Vandanda Nyk. It was there that she absorbed a great deal of knowledge about techniques, styles and skills coupled with new insight into the restaurant business. She moved on to other kitchens such as The Water Club, Babycakes NYC, La Fonda del Sol and so much more. Working in different kitchens all over New York City has been one of the greatest experiences of her life, creating a path for her to be a cake decorator, head baker and pastry chef over the course of 10 years. She then went on to work at Crave Fishbar as their Pastry Chef. While at Crave Fishbar, she was given the freedom to be truly creative, and she gained the experience of how to use local produce and seasonal ingredients.
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When the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown most businesses, she became unemployed and she was inspired to birth her company, Sip n Ice. She created Sip n Ice to offer aspiring at home bakers the confidence to use those baking tools that are often purchased and then sit unused in a kitchen drawer. Her hope was to give people a fun class on cake decorating with pro-tips, accompanied by some wine, providing a stress relief during uncertain times, and further bringing her love of baking full circle. As an added bonus to her journey, she was featured in TimeOut’s article “New York Pastry Chefs are creating underground pop-ups” for her successful handmade pies and bananas breads. She was able to successfully deliver orders to countless customers via her Instagram page during the pandemic.
Having recently moved to the West Coast, her goal is to continue teaching the art of baking and cake decorating in the San Francisco Bay Area, inspiring home bakers to make delicious and beautiful, sweet treats in their own kitchens.
EDEN CANNON
Chef Eden’s cuisine is inspired by a lifetime of travel to China, India, Europe, and Southeast Asia where she lived for a year after graduating from UC Berkeley.
Chef Eden was most recently the executive chef of Anaviv Catering and Events as well as Anaviv’s Table but decided to switch her career towards the classroom after discovering her passion for teaching while volunteering as an instructor for the Plant to Plate Internship Program. Chef Eden’s motivation is to awaken the chef inside all of us and to bring our inner creativity to the kitchen.
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Eden got her first look into the food industry as a writer for EthicalFoods.com- an online magazine that focuses on topics of food sustainability. From there she delved further into the culinary world by working in restaurants across West Marin and the Bay Area, becoming an apprentice winemaker, and helping build a no-till permaculture farm in Davis. After working in restaurants for the past 10 years, Chef Eden has cultivated relationships with farmers and artisans which has shaped her cooking style to emphasize using fresh, local ingredients within the season.
Undoubtedly, every group of students will hear this phrase in her classroom, “I am not a seamstress or a carpenter so I can’t teach you how to put clothes on your back or a roof over your head- but I can teach you how to put food on your table.”
TERRY BETTS
Chef Terry
Terry’s world revolves around food. She believes in food as a way to create and build community with friends, family and beyond. Terry has worked in food for the past 35 years, from catering to private chef work to teaching cooking lessons to running large production kitchens feeding the food insecure.
As an avid traveler, Terry has enjoyed food from all over the world, from India to Turkey to Mexico. She has integrated these adventures into her recipe and menu design.
Terry’s classes, with humor and joy, include her extensive knowledge of food traditions, ingredient production and sourcing, and, of course, cooking techniques.
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Terry’s love of food started with her first cookbook from her dad when she was 7 years old. After a stint cooking in hotels and pubs in Europe, Terry went to cooking school and started her catering career working with exclusive caterers back in Chicago.
Terry really loves teaching people how to cook and entertain. Classes could include making appetizers for entertaining, the basics of delicious vegan food or how to wow your friends with a Moroccan feast!
DAVID VISICK
Chef David began his culinary career working the service side of restaurants and fell in love with food, wine and the restaurant business. After graduating university, he worked in management and became friends with chefs and was soon cooking with them. It quickly led him to shift his interest to cooking.
He landed in San Francisco, drawn to the incredible food scene, and attended the California Culinary Academy, graduating on the Dean’s List. He worked as sous chef at San Francisco’s renowned Cafe Kati and then later at Portland, Oregon’s Zefiro at the beginning of that city’s culinary renaissance. Missing the Bay Area, he moved back after a few years.
David cooked at Chez Panisse in Berkeley for a number of years and left to open a small, intimate catering business. During this time he cooked for two US presidents, many cabinet members, dozens of US Senators and Representatives, actors, directors, musicians and also helped raise money for various charities. He was the chef and owner of the restaurant Pompette in Berkley until its sale in 2018.
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David is interested in and has studied many different world cuisines but his first love and continued fascination is with the techniques, foods and lifestyle of France, Italy and the greater
Mediterranean. His cooking draws inspiration from that part of the world but he improvises with local and seasonal ingredients to create menus that are a unique reflection of Northern California.
JACK YOUNG
Growing up in the Bay Area, Jack’s love for food developed early on and grew in to his insatiable love of all things culinary. He draws on over 10 years of experience in many different modalities of the food industry. From retail meat and seafood mongering and commercial kitchen management, to fine dining catering and private chef work. Jack maintains an ongoing obsession and ceaseless curiosity towards growing his knowledge and skills while experimenting in the kitchen. At Aliment Events, Jack finds the culmination of his experiences come together as an exhibit of his love and appreciation of great food and the bounty of California ingredients.