Andrea grew up in Kansas City. She wasn’t interested in cooking as a child, she fell in love with it after college and made it into her career. It took her first to Chicago and then up to northern Michigan. Currently she is butcher, charcutière, and co-owner at Raduno, a small delicatessen establishing itself in Traverse City. A stint as a vegetarian in her teens awakened her to the ethical aspects of cooking and eating, and she continues to express these values in her food by being thoroughly engaged in the food chain from the farmer to the plate.

“Cooking was something that I finally found that I liked and was (eventually, after lots of training) good at. I loved working in restaurants; I found that it was challenging enough to focus my sometimes scattered brain. Kitchen work, though stressful and difficult, can really be a bonding experience with the people that you work with and I found I needed that intense level of teamwork in my work-life. I still do.”