[BU Today] Chopped Finalist Jared Goldberg’s (SHA ’20) Mission to Master Dessert
Photo by Michael Goldberg
When he was 17, Jared Goldberg (SHA’20) made it to the final round on the teen version of Food Network’s Chopped. He has cooked at restaurants in Connecticut, New York, and Boston, and in summer 2017, he interned at a top bakery in New York City. Goldberg thrives on challenge, working “in a field you truly can’t master,” he says. “There are so many types of cuisines and ingredients that you constantly learn new things.”
Goldberg found the kitchen after a high school basketball injury sidelined him from the game. Looking for an alternative to sports, he attended a cooking class at UMass Amherst. “I knew I liked to eat, so I figured the class was worth a try,” he says. “I loved it. The teacher gave us creative freedom in the final exam to make a dish of our choice, and I made a stuffed tomato with wild rice, ground lamb, and a red pepper coulis. It was the first thing I ever made that was my own.”
At 16, he walked into Crabtree’s Kittle House, the finest restaurant near his hometown of Scarsdale, N.Y., seeking experience. The farm-to-table restaurant and wine cellar gave him a job as a prep cook, and he started by spending hours cutting strawberries into quarters. He learned new cooking techniques each week, from knife skills to how to create basic sauces.
Read more on BU Today.