Our Hero hails from El Paso, Texas, Noah Sheetz began his cooking career during his junior year in high school, when he worked as a short order cook at Swenson’s Ice Cream Parlor.  Noah attended the University of Texas at El Paso and the University of North Texas in Denton, where he majored in Hotel and Restaurant Management.

In 1996 Noah became the Sous Chef at well-known vegetarian restaurant La Montagne in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was exposed to different cuisines including Asian, Indian, Greek, and Latin.

1999 saw Noah enrolled at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. While there, he worked at Café Tamayo in Saugerties, New York, where he gained dessert experience preparing custards, cheesecakes, ice creams, sorbets, and pastries.

During this time Noah founded Ark Baked Goods, a wholesale and retail bakery that offered a full line of breads and pastries. They supplied many of the upscale restaurants, coffee shops, farm markets, and health food stores in the Rhinebeck area. As a student representing the Culinary Institute, Noah and Ark Baked Goods earned first place in the 2002 East Coast Collegiate Entrepreneur Awards, New York Competition.

Since graduating, Noah has worked as a Culinary Arts Instructor at the Federal Correctional Institution in Otisville, New York, and as Executive Chef at the Springvale Inn in Croton-on-Hudson, New York.

In April of 2004 Noah became the Executive Chef to the Governor and first family of the state of New York.  In addition to his duties at the Executive Mansion, Noah does community outreach to educate youth about healthy cooking, organic gardening, and eating locally.

Noah is currently attending graduate school at the University of Albany in Albany, New York.

Click on Noah’s photo above to get a link to his blog. Very varied and readable. Thanks.