Class at 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Lev Gewirtzman is a nearly 30-year veteran of New York City’s restaurant scene and
has spent the last 10 years as chef and co-managing partner of Mayfield restaurant
in Brooklyn. Mayfield has been featured in The New York Times, Timeout NY, New
York Magazine’s food blog Grubstreet and The New York Observer. In 2013, they
received a Bibb Gourmand from the New York City Via Michelin guide, which is
awarded to great, affordable restaurants through the world.
Gewirtzman’s second venture, Chilo’s, was opened in 2015 and has won critical
acclaim for both its food and beverage program. In 2020, Gewirtzman opened
Chilo’s Greenwood – a 10,000 sq.ft. offshoot of the original Chilo’s located next
to the historical 200-year-old Green-Wood cemetery.
Before Mayfield, Gewirtzman spent the better part of the last 12 years working
under acclaimed chef Tom Valenti opening Butterfield 81, Ouest, ‘Cesca and The
West Branch. Gewirtzman’s recipes have been featured in New York Magazine,
The New York Times, Martha Stewart Living and Art Culinaire. As executive chef of
Ouest and The West Branch, he was responsible for two businesses on the ultra
competitive Upper West Side of Manhattan. He then worked as chef de cuisine at
Stone Park Café, the bedrock of neighborhood fine dining in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
Jacques Belanger has been the general manager, owner and co-managing
partner of Mayfield restaurant in Brooklyn for the past 10 years. Stepping out
from behind the stove, Belanger and his staff have received repeated praise from
a vast fan base of regulars and repeat diners.
Belanger began his career 25 years ago in a Michigan pizzeria and continued to
work in the restaurant industry through high school and college. After leaving
college, he moved to Toronto and attended the culinary arts program at George
Brown College, where he finished at the top of his class.
During culinary school he worked closely with famed Canadian Chef Massimo
Capra at his well-known Toronto Italian fine dining restaurant, Mistura. After
two years, Belanger moved to New York and began his long association with
Lev Gewirtzman at Mark Spagenthal’s upscale New American restaurant, The
Screening Room. He began a six-year working relationship with Tom Valenti in
2003 at ‘Cesca, where he was on the opening staff, moving to Ouest and The
West Branch, where he was Sous Chef and Chef de Cuisine, respectively.
Details & Reservations: 305-367-5931