Tessa Durfee
Kitchen Lead
As our Kitchen Lead, Tessa gets to use all the wonderful fruits and vegetables we have grown to make prepared food for the farmstand, dinner shares, and special events. She loves that although we have a few staple dishes, everything depends on what crops have been harvested in abundance, so she’s constantly developing and adapting new recipes. It’s exciting!
Tessa is from New York City. She grew up cleaning mussels and clams for her family restaurant in Montauk, NY, and eventually began to work in the kitchen. Some years later she was presented with an opportunity to work in a kitchen for a small business in Brooklyn called Marious & Co, which was an eat-in, take-out, and catering restaurant. She went from sous chef to head chef, and stayed there before moving to the Upper Valley a few years ago.
Since then, Tessa’s been living in Norwich, VT, and this will be her third season on the farm! When not here, she loves swimming and being outside, and teaching herself how to garden. She occasionally reads and draws, and spends a lot of time with her son Jack and daughter Pia. She’d like to shout out her husband Nick, cat Mishka, and the hamster, Professor Nibs. Oh and Gail, hi Gail!!