Women entrepreneurs share perspectives on their culinary career journeys at Murray’s Cheese Shop.
The panelists of Murray’s Shaping the Future of Food, Cheese, and Culture event. From left to right: Alexina Cather, Kat Craddock, Lena Ciardullo, Maisie Wilhelm, Elizabeth Chubbuck, Julia Collins, Hallie Meyer, Katie Losito.
Sometimes, the recipe for rising to the top is a mix of following a gut feeling plus a dash of luck.
On March 13, women entrepreneurs gathered for a sold-out panel discussion at Murray’s Cheese’s Bleecker Street shop in New York—the first event of its kind for the cheese shop. The panel took place in the Leroy Room, a speakeasy-style underground space once home to Murray’s cheese caves.
Cheese-industry panelists included Katie Losito, the president of Jasper Hill Farm; Kat Craddock, former cheesemonger and current editor-in-chief of Saveur; and Julia Collins, the founder of climate-friendly snack company Moonshot, which became Patagonia Provisions after an acquisition. The moderator, Murray’s Chief Strategy Officer Elizabeth Chubbuck, interviewed the aforementioned panelists as well as five other female leaders about their journeys to success.
A sign outside of the Leroy Room at Murray’s Cheese Shop advertising the event.
“Going with my gut on the next best possible step for me to get me where I want to be is kind of how I landed here,” said Craddock, who bought Saveur from Recurrent Ventures with an investor in April 2023 and subsequently restored the magazine’s print operation. “I think a lot of that is dumb luck and good fortune and privilege, but I do trust my own instincts on some sort of level.”
Several of Craddock’s co-panelists affirmed that following intuition can serve as a compass for finding yourself in the best situations imaginable. Maisie Wilhelm, the founder of bespoke food tour and hospitality company Palatine Culinary Concierge, said that she became an assistant to French chef Daniel Boulud by answering a Craigslist ad. Hallie Meyer of Caffè Panna pivoted her gelato business to prepackaged pints in response to customer needs during the pandemic. The production move was something she never planned because Caffè Panna was inspired by Italian gelateria culture, but now these pints make up a large percentage of her revenue.
“If you’re too stuck to an idea, you won’t adapt the way you need to,” Meyer said.
Another topic of discussion was how to bolster confidence of women in the food industry, with Meyer saying that “confidence to fail” is a practice. Losito offered her perspective as the president of a small, decades-old family business that company decisions are sometimes talked about at the dinner table.
“That for me has been the biggest challenge: to learn their cadence of decision-making, figure out how to fit in with that pacing so that I can add value and learn from that,” Losito said.
In terms of work-life balance, Collins said she’s a firm believer in dropping the ball—because sometimes, the ball is rubber. Lena Ciardullo, Executive Chef of Danny Meyer’s Union Square Café, said that it’s important for women to give themselves grace, especially when balancing motherhood and a career in food. As a chef, Ciardullo has seen a lot of women leave the profession to raise kids; she wants to model another path for her female line cooks and two sons.
Lena Ciardullo spoke about balancing motherhood and her career as an executive chef.
“I didn’t think I could do a good enough job at my job while being a parent,” Ciardullo said. “I spoke to someone who was a general manager at one of the other restaurants in the [Union Square Hospitality] group and she was like, ‘No, Lena, here’s the thing, you’re going to suck at both. … Then you’re going to get over it and it’s going to be great.’”
The panel concluded with a chance for attendees to mingle, network, and speak with presenters. Jill Tardiff, an audience member and a manager of Saxelby’s Cheese in New York’s Chelsea Market, said that the evening redefined entrepreneurship for her. “We often think that being an entrepreneur means that you have to be in a separate company, start your own company,” Tardiff said. “What this proves is that you can be entrepreneurial within what is regarded as traditional industries. It is more an attitude on how to conduct business than just doing it alone, by yourself.”
When asked about the importance of hosting an event focused on women in food during Women’s History Month, Chubbuck noted the long history of women in cheesemaking and the inherent value of women coming together to exchange stories.
“Giving women a platform to share their voices and their stories—the good, the bad, and the ugly—I think really just opens doors for other women to know that it’s possible for them to do the same,” Chubbuck said.
Attendees mingling after the panel discussion. All were encouraged by Elizabeth Chubbuck, the moderator of the panel, to introduce themselves to someone in the room they didn’t know.
Alana Pedalino
Alana Pedalino's work has been featured in Chicken Soup for the Soul, Bon Appétit, and The Buffalo News. She's currently serving as culture's social media manager. She loves to write poetry, eat spaghetti carbonara, and kayak. Follow her @APstyle on X. Read more by her here: https://alanapedalino.com/#/.
