About Us
The League of Kitchens is a culinary dream-team of women from around the world who will welcome you into their homes, teach you their family recipes, and inspire you with their personal stories.
Each experience offers opportunities for meaningful connection and social interaction, cultural engagement and exchange, culinary learning and discovery, and exceptional eating and drinking. Through this experience, the League of Kitchens seeks to build cross-cultural connection and understanding, to increase access to traditional cooking knowledge, and to provide meaningful, well-paid employment and training for immigrants.
The League of Kitchens has been featured in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the Chew, Tasting Table, Saveur, The Splendid Table, Eater, and Time Out New York, among others. Conde Nast Traveler called the League of Kitchens “quite possibly the coolest foodie thing to do whether you're a visitor or local.
Our Team
Lisa Kyung Gross
Founder/CEO
As the daughter of a Korean immigrant and a Jewish New Yorker, Lisa was raised on one grandmother's denjang-guk and the other's matzoh ball soup. The League of Kitchens is borne out of her passion for New York City, her love of cooking, and her connection to the immigrant experience. Lisa's projects as an artist, educator, and social entrepreneur create opportunities for learning, connection, and multi-sensory engagement. She received her MFA in participatory public art from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts/Tufts University and has a B.A. from Yale University. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two daughters.
Arielle Gonzalez
Program Manager
Born and bred in the suburban wilds of New Jersey, Arielle is an actor, gardener, and home cook based in Ridgewood, Queens. Growing up the daughter of an Argentine immigrant, with grandparents from Italy and Cuba, she’s been lucky to be surrounded by beautiful, delicious food her entire life. Arielle considers food–both cooking it and eating it–to be a powerful opportunity for connection and is thrilled to be a part of The League of Kitchens encouraging others to “Cook Like a Grandma.” When she’s not answering emails, you can find Arielle teaching her cat how to high-five or singing a showtune.
Sarah Dittmore
Communications and Marketing Manager
Sarah spent over a decade traveling the world and often found herself in the homes of families whose language she could not speak. But we all understand the language of food, and cooking and eating together soon proved a wonderful way to bridge the language and culture barriers. Today, Sarah continues to use food as a tool for creating connections and building relationships. She is honored to bring her years of experience in digital content marketing to the League of Kitchens team and is excited by the opportunity to connect with the League of Kitchens instructors by meeting them in the kitchen.
Liz Tarpy
Supervising Recipe Writer/Editor/Tester
As a food and travel lover, the opportunity for Liz to cook with and learn from the instructors at the League of Kitchens — and then translate their family recipes into written ones we all can use — has been a dream come true. When not cooking the cuisines of the League of Kitchens instructors, Liz is a freelance recipe developer, tester, and editor, culinary researcher, and food media professional. Her clients include HelloFresh USA, Food Network, Volpi Foods, and Meredith Corp.
