The next generation of culinary artisans are changing up the industry. These artisans have a whole new approach to reaching and satisfying the next generation consumer. In this podcast we will explore chefs and artisans from around the world diving into their story and passion.

In this episode of Chef AF, I chat with Trisha Pérez Kennealy, owner and culinary educator at the Inn at Hastings Park in Lexington, Massachusetts about growing up in Puerto Rico, earning her MBA from Harvard Business School and her passion for hospitality and community.

Pérez Kennealy is the owner of the Inn at Hastings Park, a chef and culinary educator and a proud Puerto Rican, Jewish woman. After earning her MBA from Harvard Business School and a lucrative career in finance, she earned her Diplôme de Cuisine and Diplôme de Pâtisserie at Le Cordon Bleu Culinary School in London. In 2014, Pérez Kennealy opened the Inn at Hastings Park after realizing that her hometown did not have one. The Inn is the only Boston-area Relais & Châteaux hotel.

I ask Pérez Kennealy about her journey to hospitality, she says, “Well, it actually does go back to Puerto Rico and how it was that my family ended up in Massachusetts, my father has always worked in a very traditional accounting firm, and then left and started his own company. So he's been an entrepreneur since that point and he was always my inspiration. I always knew that I wanted to have my own business.”

We talk about the Inn being a center for food and community with high-touch hospitality plus things the team at the Inn does that is high-touch. Pérez Kennealy was able to provide culinary education to her guests and community during the pandemic, with the launch of Monthly Immersive Culinary Weekends and Monthly weekday Supper Club.

To hear more about the Inn’s high-touch hospitality, her takeaway from competing on the show Beat Bobby Flay and Pérez Kennealy’s recipe for Mofongo & Matzoh Ball Soup, check out this episode of Chef AF “It’s All Food.” You can listen to this episode and more on Spotify!