Erika Drake

After graduating with a BA in writing from The New School, Erika searched for her first cooking job. She landed at NYC’s Lupa as garde manger — slicing prosciutto, confiting octopi, and searing radicchio. She holds a culinary arts diploma from the International Culinary School at the Art Institute. Before contributing to Serious Eats she worked as a cook, pastry chef, bakery manager, chef instructor, and chocolatier. In addition to preparing food steeped in history and culture, both savory and sweet, Erika is keen on using whole foods as much as possible in her recipes. 

Erika is perpetually awestruck at the breadth of the culinary world, and learns a new gastronomic morsel every single day. A recent obsession is the Gilda: a savory, piquant snack from the Basque region, named after a Rita Hayworth character and film, which features olives, anchovies, and piparras on a cocktail skewer. An ardent recipe and cookbook collector, Erika has been gathering recipes since she was five years old, often tearing them out of magazines in waiting rooms when her mother wasn’t looking. She’s attempting to balance out her recipe karma by developing recipes to give back to the world.

When Erika isn’t in the kitchen, she can be found spending time with her family, gardening, hiking, enjoying live music, and practicing yoga in sunny Colorado.

Erika graduated from The New School with a BA in writing and a minor concentration in education. She earned her culinary arts diploma from the International Culinary School at the Art Institute of Houston.