About

Thanks for coming to Up Chef Creek.

I am Ori, a NYC-based chef , caterer and educator. A huge part of my cooking inspiration comes from traveling extensively, and always studying the local fare. I usually return home with a stockpile of  recipes, techniques and ideas. My process is to take my notes and streamline them into easy to follow, successful recipes that anyone can recreate for a little out-of-town flavor. This is what I teach in many of my classes: 3rdward, Astor Center, Whole Foods Bowery, GerNis Culinary.

Cooking for private clients and families gives me the opportunity to create menus of all shapes and sizes featuring every different type of cuisine; Mediterranean, Mid-Eastern, South East Asian, Mexican, and of course lots of vibrant ‘American’ style. I studied culinary arts at The Natural Gourmet Institute for Food and Health (2005) and my food philosophy is good quality food equals good quality life and I find this to be true wherever I go in the world. I’m sticking to it.

Making art and creating cocktails are also part of my endeavors.

The name ‘Up Chef Creek’ came up in a deal I made with myself: ‘the next name you think of will be IT even if it is ridiculous’ so I just went with it. I think it’s a halfway amusing name because in cooking following a recipe is not the most difficult part. But finding yourself in a bind, having to rescue a recipe when something goes wrong, now that is where ingenuity and terror and terror-inspired ingenuity step in. Plus, it sounds adventurous (in a steak-house sort of way).

On this site you will find the following:

• recipes: things to cook
• healthy/superfoods: enthusiastic rants about a food’s health benefits
• little extras: sauces, side notes, bells, whistles…
• musings/reviews: thoughts and opinions, often in the form of love letters
• idolatry: things I like (people, places, products, etc.)
• video/tutorials: the newest feature of the site, things that teach and explain… one cook to another
• visual art/paintings: a current series of still-life food paintings and drawings. To see other artwork, visit ocosentino.com

RECIPE INDEX: provides the site’s recipe at a glance and links to them

RESTAURANT LIST: chef approved places to eat

CV: my resume in detail.

To contact me, please leave a comment anywhere on upchefcreek.com or email me at: omcooking@gmail.com