About Abra

Hey there!

Welcome to Abra's Kitchen, a New York City food blog based on whole food, seasonal recipes and the stories, travels, and wellness wisdom that go along with them.

I'm Abra, a New York City girl transplanted from good ‘ol Scranton, PA. I live on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with my pup, Penelope Pancake, and my pseudo-husband Jordan.

I moved to New York when I was a very young and sweet 21 to pursue a career in musical theater. I still belt my heart out to show tunes, only now I do it while dancing around my kitchen rather than dancing around a broadway stage, and quite frankly I am as happy as could be.

My Food Philosophy:

I am a nutritionist, currently pursuing a masters degree in functional medicine, so I can get pretty geeky about the healing properties of food, but that doesn't mean that I ever sacrifice flavor for health, that would be just silly.

I spent many years as a personal chef which I used as the perfect opportunity to hone my culinary voice, test a crazy amount of recipes, and learn how to execute fantastic healthy food in a limited amount of time. I love sharing those tricks and any nugget of wisdom I learn along the way.

Food is our most powerful medicine, but strict dietary dogmas don't really do it for me. I have a very flexible philosophy around food and health:

• Eat food as close to it's natural state as possible (I much prefer a tomato over a tomato flavored potato chip)
• Eat as many plant foods as you can (40 different plants per week, can you do it??)
• Eat what's in season
• Buy local, organic whenever possible
• Animal protein is a great side dish and veggies are a great main course
• Share your food with loved ones
• Play in the kitchen, make mistakes, and move on
• Sing while you cook and maybe throw in a jazz hand from time to time
• and always – always – always leave room for chocolate. Because…chocolate.

I come from a long line of culinary wizards. My great-great grandma was a chef for royalty in Hungary and my other side of the family is Italian, which makes for quite the culinary cocktail. I like to think that I have a commitment to good food encoded in my DNA.

Other Random Stuff:

I love, love, love to travel and will literally jump on a plane to anywhere in the world if the opportunity presents itself, and I make sure that the “opportunity presents itself” a few times per year 🙂

Although I don't sing or dance professionally anymore I did return to tap class last year and it turns out this girl still has it (not really, but I love it just as much).

If you are interested in learning more about my nutrition practice feel free to head on over to abrapappa.com for all the deets.

Thanks so much for stopping by and hanging out in my kitchen. If you have any questions/comments/ or just want to drop me a line you can do so here.

Penelope Pancake signing off 😉