“Don’t cry because it’s over,
smile because it happened.”
~Dr. Seuss
OUR FORT MYERS TEAM
Kitchen Social
Anita Kern
Chef Instructor
Chef Anita Kern’s culinary influences started from a young age while traveling all around the world with her family. As a child, she watched and learned from her grandmother cooking ingredients fresh from their Australian farm and, later, her aunts in Northern Italy making centuries old recipes. Her culinary career started with her opening a deli in Detroit that had people lining out the door. She was then hired by several restaurants for the purpose of helping them revamp their menus. In August 2014, she was employed by a Michigan-based wine maker to build and run a cooking school from the ground up, turning an empty warehouse into an upscale teaching kitchen. This was when Chef Anita discovered her true passion was being a culinary instructor, which she continued to do when she came to Naples.
"Good food to me is so powerful. It can bring people together and make lasting memories that can be passed down for generations. There is nothing that makes me happier than helping others gain the knowledge and confidence to create these special moments with their loved ones, and having a good time while doing it.”.
~Anita Kern
OUR CHESTERFIELD TEAM
Kitchen Social
Chef Tony Combs
General Manager/Chef Instructor
Having grown up on a small farm in North Central Illinois, Tony was exposed to the farm-to-table culture early. Taught to use what you have available and be able to create something delicious and beautiful, these principles are still used to this day.
Tony’s background is somewhat non-traditional for the kitchen. He has his degree in biology and spent many years at Washington University School of Medicine working in vision and immunology research. Wanting a change, he moved back to the Chicago area to attend the culinary program at Joliet Junior College. While attending school he worked in the bakeshop as a teaching assistant. Able to use some of the same basic skill set as used in chemistry, he excelled and developed a passion for pastry.
The past 18 years Tony has been the head baker/pastry chef at Cravings Gourmet Desserts and Restaraunt in Webster Groves, Missouri.
“ Food is a way to bring people together and make memories. What you see first creates the expectation for the taste, therefore, it should look as beautiful as it tastes.”
~Tony Combs
Matt Amsler
Chef Instructor
Chef Matthew Amsler’s culinary journey began as a teenager, he always had an interest in food but, his interest was really amplified when his aunt & uncle opened an Italian restaurant on the Hill in St. Louis. Chef Matt began working at the restaurant as a busser, but soon began to take interest at what was going on in the kitchen.
Chef Matthew began working in the kitchen and enrolled into culinary school at Forest Park Community College in St. Louis. Chef Matthew would go on to work at numerous other restaurants in the Saint Louis area as well as continuing his culinary education at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, RI. Chef Matthew took his culinary knowledge back to St. Louis and would work as a Sous Chef and Executive Chef.
Chef Matthew discovered a passion for teaching and training other people. He took that passion and became a culinary instructor at a culinary school in St. Charles, for the next 4 years Chef Matthew would pass his knowledge on to others and would eventually became the Culinary Director of the school. Chef Matthew continues to have a passion for passing his knowledge on to others and really has developed a strong connection with countless Chefs around the Saint Louis area.
“One of the most important things that I have learned while working in this industry is that you should never stop learning. I enjoy learning about new techniques and recent trends in our industry and it brings me great joy to pass that along to others.”
~Matthew Amsler
OUR BRENTWOOD (NASHVILLE) TEAM
Kitchen Social
Chef Nikki Harbester
General Manager
Nikki’s interest in the culinary arts started when she was only 7 years old, a drive to try new things and create recipes with local, quality ingredients. Her formal culinary education started as early as her freshman year of high school when she realized that they offered a culinary program, and that education has been moving forward since.
She was introduced to commercial food-service soon after, and that passion was, as she says, “burned into her soul”. She fell in love with the work, the pace, and the gratification that the industry presented and she has worked in the hospitality field ever since. Her first true culinary position was with The Arlington of Naples, being one of the few chefs there to be tasked with the initial set-up, organization, and logistics involved with opening a world-class retirement resort when she was only 19. She stayed for over a year, learning from a rotating team of talented and experienced chefs until she set out for her own culinary degree.
She then attended Lorenzo Walker Technical College, graduating at the top of her class, even staying in school after graduation to study pastry skills in depth. Driven by her passion for food, this formal culinary education only fueled the need to take her creativity skills to a whole new level. She enjoys growing a vegetable and herb garden providing her with the freshest ingredients which she believes is essential to her craft.
For Nikki, cooking is more than a showcase for her creativity and fervor for great food, it is therapeutic and relaxing. She says that when she is in the kitchen, the problems of everyday life and the world around her just melt away.
“It’s just me and the food, what will it become?”.
~Nikki Harbester