Our Chefs - Kara's Kitchenware | Old Mill District

Chef Candy

Growing up in an Italian family, food was the center of every gathering. This influenced Chef Candy Argondizza’s love of food and the desire to pursue it as a career, which began with earning her degree from The Culinary Institute of America. Chef Candy has led kitchens in some of NYC’s finer restaurants, including invitations to cook at the famed James Beard House.

Chef Candy’s desire to teach let her to the International Culinary Center (formerly the French Culinary Institute) in NYC, where she taught the professional curriculum and mentored many aspiring chefs. In 2012, she received the prestigious “Educator of the Year” award from the International Association of Culinary Professions (IACP) in recognition of her role as a teacher and administrator. After a few years of teaching at FCI, she was tapped to lead the entire faculty of both culinary and pastry, and creating curriculum for the professional and amateur programs. Chef Candy worked alongside ICC’s legendary deans and worked on all of the ICC published cookbooks. Chef Candy moved to Bend in 2017 starting her own culinary business, Ingredient Studio, with her partner. She continues to share her knowledge and talents with all food lovers in Bend and Central Oregon.

Chef Molly

As a cookbook author and recipe blogger, Molly is passionate about teaching others to cook and building confidence in the kitchen. Molly’s culinary education began when she worked in her family’s restaurant, where she learned many cooking techniques. She made soups, sauces, and entrées from scratch, and she filled the dessert cart with cakes, cheesecakes, chocolate mousse, pies, tarts, and chocolate truffles, fulfilling her childhood sweet-tooth dreams when she became the restaurant’s pastry chef as a young adult. When her daughters were born, her interest in home cooking took hold. She discovered new recipes and ingredients, continuing her education and experience in the kitchen, focusing on feeding her family healthy meals and entertaining friends. Her recipe blog, which she began at her niece’s request, features many recipes from those years, along with family recipes and step-by-step instructions for novice cooks. Her cookbook, Living Legacy: Stories of a Restaurant Family, features recipes and tales of her family’s restaurant. To learn more, visit Molly’s website, WitandThyme.com, and her recipe blog, AuntieChatter.com.

Chef Brandy

Brandy Berlin is an educator, mind-body specialist, and home cook who delights in bringing traditional wisdom to the modern kitchen. Having been taught by a long line of fine women, Brandy’s love of cooking and baking is infused with experimentation and joy. In 2011, on a sabbatical from teaching high school, a post-Burning Man wild hair led her to renovate a 22-foot RV into a cupcake truck where she specialized in crafting organic specialty cupcakes. After building the business, she sold it almost exactly one year after envisioning it.

Personal health challenges, including an IBS diagnosis at age 18, drew her to explore cooking for wellness. After years of chronic illness, through Ayurveda, she has alleviated all her symptoms by embracing a holistic approach to food and life. Brandy now teaches Ayurvedic lifestyle practices and slow, accessible, evidence-informed yoga, guiding others to find agency over their health. She believes that learning to cook simple, yummy, balancing meals is a life skill and is passionate about supporting others to feel excited and empowered in their kitchens.

Learn more at brandyberlin.com.

Chef Brian

Over the years, Brian has been privileged to lead kitchens in a number of diverse and high-profile settings, including Morton’s The Steakhouse, The Stephanie Inn, The Oregon Golf Club, Deschutes Brewery and Public House, the Alexander, CHOW, Anthony’s at the Old Mill, and is now the program director at Cascade Culinary Institute.

With a focus on sustainability and purchasing locally, he’s developed strong relationships with providers of the highest quality farm-fresh food available in Central Oregon. He enjoys teaching and celebrating unforgettable culinary creations with guests from around the world.

When he’s not in the kitchen, you’ll find him spending time with his family enjoying all that Bend has to offer including hiking, fly fishing, camping, kayaking and bird watching!

“Cooking is like painting or writing a song. Just as there are only so many notes or colors, there are only so many flavors—it’s how you combine them that sets you apart.”

–Wolfgang Puck