Thanks for stopping by. I’m Susan and this is Crate Cooking.
I live in a 450-square-foot studio apartment in New York’s Greenwich Village with my husband Luke, an assistant director and actor, and our young daughter, Leia. I cook most of our meals at home in our tiny kitchen.
My career in food began in 2006 after graduating from the University of Michigan and moving to New York to attend the former French Culinary Institute in SoHo. From there I tried my hand at a lot of food jobs to stay afloat. I started out as a summer live-in private chef for a family on Gin Lane in Southampton (I got so tan), turned down a job offer from Daniel Humm at Eleven Madison Park (WTH was I thinking), worked as a line cook at Blue Hill for a whole week before quitting, did a test kitchen internship at Good Housekeeping, was an assistant food editor at Martha Stewart until the recession claimed my dream job, did craft services for a James Franco indie film (absolute nightmare – but landed me a husband), more private cheffing on the Upper East Side, recipe tested for Real Simple and Food52, worked in farm inspections for Greenmarket (I miss those days), tried food styling for a few corporate clients, web edited for Food Network and Cooking Channel, taught kids cooking classes at Home Cooking New York and spent five years as a program manager at the Institute of Culinary Education, to name a few.
These days I am home with my daughter.
Crate Cooking is a journal of how I seasonally shop, cook and eat in our small home. I shoot all photography in an east-facing kitchen window with an iPhone 7 and a Nikon Coolpix L330.