5 fun facts about Amanda Cohen

Meet NAIT's 2017 Hokanson Chef in Residence

Amanda Cohen, owner and chef at Dirt Candy and 2017 NAIT Hokanson Chef in ResidenceCanadian-born, New York-based chef Amanda Cohen owns Dirt Candy, an acclaimed restaurant featuring only vegetables. She’ll be sharing her veggie secrets with NAIT culinary students as the Hokanson Chef in Residence, March 6 to 10, 2017.

  • She’s not a vegetarian, though she used to be. And she loves vegetables, of course.
  • She eliminated tipping at Dirt Candy in January, 2015, making it the first restaurant in New York City to do so.
  • She was the first vegetarian chef to appear on the popular TV show, Iron Chef America, in 2010.
  • Her cookbook, Dirt Candy: A Cookbook (check out the trailer below), was the first graphic novel cookbook published in North America
  • She was born in Ottawa and lived in Toronto before moving to New York to study at the Natural Gourmet Institute.


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