Chef Camp Announces First Chef for 2018: Nettie Colón + Underground Cooking

This story is sponsored by Chef Camp.

At Chef Camp, between campfire cooking classes and summer camp activities, everyone sits down to chef-prepared meals. This year, Nettie Colón will be the Camp Cook serving up those meals. Her creativity, farm-to-table focus, and willingness to dig a fire pit just about anywhere are guaranteed to make the food unforgettable.

Adam Hester

She’ll be combining many different styles of underground cooking — from the Andean pachamanca, a layered meal cooked in a pit for many hours, to the Sardinian carraxu, where whole animals are wrapped in herbs and slowly cooked in a fire. She will incorporate ingredients and flavors that she has picked up from her many travels.

Born in New York City and raised in Puerto Rico, Nettie spent her formative years learning traditional Puerto Rican cooking methods with her grandmother and her friends. Nettie was chef de cuisine for over a decade at Luciaʼs Restaurant & Wine Bar in Uptown, Minneapolis. For seven years Nettie taught Mayan cuisine classes in the Biosphere Reserve of Sian Ka’an in Tulum on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. She currently runs creative pop-up events through her company Red Hen Gastrolab.

Adam Hester

Nettie taught three amazing classes at last year’s Chef Camp and did a surprise octopus demonstration. Get the recipe for her Charred Octopus with Grilled Lemon Coriander Sauce here.

Tickets to Chef Camp are available now!