Chef Mom & Cafe 424
Heart & Hospitality.
Nicola a.k.a. Chef Mom, master chef and a master mom, is the owner and operator of Cafe 424 here at the guildhall.
She began her hospitality career back in 2001, when she opened her first restaurant in Queens NY. She subsequently attended the Institute of Culinary Education to refine her skills in the Pastry Baking arts and Culinary Management. Since then, she has had the opportunity to work in a variety of business contexts from Baccarat Hotel to Hofstra University to Hex & Co, granting her over 20 years of business management and HR experience and establishing herself from a unique vantage point within this competitive hospitality industry. She has served as executive chef/owner of four restaurants, business consultant to various startup operations, and culinary educator at local Not-for-profit Organizations (as in A.P.E.C. and churches like Mount Mariah A.M.E). Since opening Cafe 424, she has been featured in w42st Magazine and was shortlisted as “Best Newcomer” to Hell’s Kitchen in 2022.
Her broad experience in restaurant development includes concept and menu design, events coordination, scheduling, and staff/ team development, management training and wine pairing. Her professional strong suits include effective communication, thriving in high pressure situations that require adaptation, organization, and finding solutions in difficult situations. Whether working at BOH or FOH (that's "back of house" and "front of house" for non-service folks), she applies proven management, analytical, and service skills to keep the ball rolling. If all that wasn't more than enough, she's an ardent student of nutrition and extends her food practice to support ecological causes. In fact, her interest in ecology is how we met!
We're so grateful to have Chef Mom on our team and for our guildmates at GROW Externships, who introduced her to us in 2022.
Since joining as our cafe partner and now as a cooperative member, Chef Mom has cemented herself as a bastion of Jamaican-style hospitality (and real talk) here at the guildhall. When she's not nourishing guildmates and folks from the neighborhood with sumptuous food, she's helping to make sure things get done, giving folks some serious wisdom, and collaborating on something delicious.
