Danilo Alfaro

Danilo Alfaro is a former private chef, now a full-time writer in Portland, OR. He's been writing professionally about the culinary arts since 2007.

Experience

Throughout his previous career in journalism and PR, which allowed him to live and work in some of the major culinary capitals of the world, Danilo developed and nurtured a passion for food that ultimately led him to pursue his formal culinary training in Los Angeles.

After graduating from culinary school, Danilo honed his skills cooking in upscale restaurants and a high-end catering company, before launching his personal chef business, specializing in gourmet dinner parties, in 2004. He was a live-in private chef for a family in San Francisco from 2009 to 2011.

Education

Danilo is a graduate of the culinary school at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College, the oldest culinary arts program in the country. He also has a bachelor's degree in Liberal Arts from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY.

Danilo Alfaro

"Because I'm a chef, people sometimes expect me to be some kind of food snob—but nothing could be further from the truth. I became a chef because I love food, not so that I could criticize or judge other people's cooking. Which isn't to say that I don't have strong opinions, because I do—and I don't mind sharing them. But when I taste something for the first time, I'm always looking for something to love about it, not something to find fault with.

"Having cooked in the kitchens of scores of clients over the years, I'm familiar with the challenges a cook faces in preparing gourmet-quality food at home, and I always try to keep the home kitchen in mind when writing recipes and creating menus."