About Samia

I grew up in Dublin, Ohio, which tends to surprise people. Food was everything in my family. I was always the first one at the table when something new was being made, always the one gravitating toward the kitchen. That part hasn't changed.

I started college at the University of Colorado Boulder, studying Chemical and Biological Engineering. I loved the coursework, genuinely. But when the pandemic hit in 2020, it forced a kind of clarity I wasn't expecting. I came out of it with one real conviction: I was going to build a life where joy was a priority, not an afterthought.

I switched into Creative Technology and Design, a project-based program within the engineering school, and focused on videography, graphic design, and photography. The most lasting thing I took from it wasn't a skill set. It was a way of thinking: understand the user, communicate with intention, build systems that hold up.

Around that time, I started making cooking content as a creative outlet. When a video went viral, I didn't want to coast on it. I wanted to know if I could back it up. So during my senior year, I spent about 30 hours a week line cooking at Rosetta Hall, an upscale food hall in Boulder. I loved the pace, the pressure, and the precision. I still do.

After graduating, I moved to New York and joined Nimbus, a B2B food startup, as their sole marketing hire. I was part of a small team navigating rapid expansion and then rapid contraction. It was a crash course in startups, resilience, and the specific chaos of the NYC food world. It also introduced me to a community of culinary entrepreneurs who completely changed how I thought about what was possible in this industry.

When that chapter ended, I bet on myself.

Since then I've trained at the Tokyo Sushi Academy, worked as a full-time private chef, supported food startups, created content on set for Amazon, and helped build what I genuinely believe is one of the best meal prep businesses in New York City. I also started Six Weeks Somewhere, a travel series rooted in the belief that the best way to understand a food culture is to actually live inside it for a while.

Private dining is one of my favorite things I do. There's something about cooking for someone over and over, learning exactly how they eat, what they love, what they didn't know they wanted until it was in front of them, that I find deeply satisfying. My goal is always to get to a place where my clients don't have to think about food at all. I've already got it.

More than anything, I care about the people building careers in this industry. The creative ones, the driven ones, the ones who are a little unhinged in the best way. Food brings people together in a way almost nothing else does, and I take that seriously. Whether I'm cooking for a table of eight or advising a founder on their next move, I'm always thinking about how to make the experience more connected, more intentional, and more worth it.