Executive Chef
Barbara Alexander is the Executive Chef of the Napa Valley Cooking School at Napa Valley College. Prior to the Executive Chef position at the Napa Valley Cooking School, Chef Alexander was a Chef Instructor at The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone, in California’s Napa Valley.
Other past achievements in Chef Alexander’s culinary career include an apprenticeship in 1984 that culminated with recognition as the top apprentice in Western Canada at the Pan Pacific Vancouver Hotel. This was followed by work in several of Vancouver’s top Pacific Rim restaurants. For the next two years Chef Alexander worked in restaurants in London, England, after which she exported her culinary skills to Sidney, Australia. Positions included sous chef at several top Sydney restaurants and executive chef at an exclusive boutique hotel before taking over the kitchens at the famed Paramount Restaurant. Chef Alexander spent six years maintaining the high standards that won the ‘Best Restaurant in the South Pacific’ and ‘Best Sydney Restaurants’ distinctions for the restaurant. She was also instrumental in the opening of the trendsetting Paramount Stores, a high-end gourmet food retailer.
Chef Alexander then returned to Canada and her alma mater, Canada’s premier culinary school, Dubrulle International Culinary and Hotel Institute of Canada, to begin her teaching career. During her tenure there she spearheaded many new programs and helped develop new culinary curriculum for the Institute.
Chef Instructor
Chef Laura Lee comes to the Napa Valley with a wealth of knowledge and experience in restaurants, catering and culinary instruction that stretches over 2 decades.
She started her career as a partner in The Plaza Café Company operating a 150-seat restaurant in Carmel-By-The-Sea. Over the next 6 years, she would go on to develop a catering business, two additional restaurants and a thriving restaurant consulting business. In 1995 Chef Laura turned her attention to teaching and spent the next 5 years with Home Chef Cooking School as an Instructor and Manager of Curriculum Development.
It was an interest in food and wine pairing that brought Chef Lee to the wine country where she worked first as the Chef de Cuisine at Simi Winery and later provided wine-centric catering for other exclusive wineries in Sonoma and Napa counties. As the Executive Chef, she went on to develop the Food and Wine Pairing Culinary Experience at Signorello Vineyards in Napa.
After 2 years at Tomales Bay Foods/Cowgirl Creamery selling Artisan Cheese to chefs all across the country Chef Laura’s passion for teaching brought her to the Napa Valley Cooking School as a full time instructor in the Professional Culinary Program.
Adjunct Faculty, Guest Chefs, Guest Speakers
Jerry Comfort, Executive Chef, Beringer Blass Wine Estates
David Frakes, Executive Chef, Hudson House, Beringer Blass Wine Estates
Kim Caffrey, Wine Educator, the new Francis Ford Coppola (yet unnamed) winery, Geyserville
Beverly Hanapole, Hanapole Consulting, Food and Beverage Cost Control
Troy McClarty, Chez Panisse
Kevin McKenzie, Executive Chef, Dry Creek Vinyards
Jason Skelly, Chef, Pride Vineyards
Maiano Orlando, Private Chef
Dieter Dopplefeld, Certified Master Chef
Connie Gutterson, Registered Nutritionist
Webber Family, Della Fattoria Bakery
Hog Island Oyster Company
** GUEST CHEFS MAY VARY EACH YEAR DEPENDING UPON AVAILABILITY