Seattle Chefs Collaborative Board

A graduate of La Cordon Rouge Culinary School in Sausalito California, Chef Breiman began his career in 4-5 star restaurants both in San Francisco and New York City.

Drawn by centuries of history and culinary tradition Breiman moved to France for several years working for extended periods in Michelin starred restaurant such as La Trois Marche in Versailles, La Bourride in Caen, Normandy Le Chateau Eza in Eze Village and Restaurant Chantecler at Hotel Negreso in Nice, France.

Upon his return to the USA, Chef Breiman brought critical acclaim to Meadowood Napa Valley a Relais Chateaux property, traveling to Baden Baden, Germany, Beijing, China and Seoul, South Korea to promote Food & Wines from the Napa Valley.

In 2003, Breiman returned to the Pacific Northwest where, at Salish Lodge & Spa, he continued his passionate pursuit of promoting sustainable foods. In 2005, he and his team at Salish Lodge and Spa were recognized by Conde Nast Traveler Readers Choice Awards as the number #2 dining destination in the USA.

Chef Breiman's most recent endeavor has brought him back to the essence of cooking where he has become Culinary Director at Cedarbrook Lodge, a 17-acre, small luxury hotel located a few miles south of Seattle. Breiman's focus for this unique property is on Sustainable Food Concepts where onsite composting, water reclamation and development of unique onsite systems plans for the Cedarbrook farm are what he considers "A Labor of Love," highlighting the positive impact that sustainable practices can have on the environment and surrounding community.

Laurence Harris is the Treasurer of the Seattle Chapter of the Chefs Collaborative. He is a "confirmed foodie", and enjoys spending creative time in the kitchen. His present day-job has him doing Software Engineering for Embedded Controls, and he is currently involved in a Distributed Autonomous Agents Artificial Intelligence project for electric power distribution system control. This award winning AI software has enjoyed increasing acceptance in the power distribution industry over the last ten years.

In 1981, when he was working as a control systems engineer for a large confectionery manufacturer, Laurence was trained as a Sensory Evaluation Generalist, with additional specialized training and experience in chocolate flavor evaluation. Subsequently he spent over fifteen years managing a successful contract software engineering firm, and during this time also led the development and marketing of a profitable high-end image processing and statistics software package for support of Sensory Evaluation. The software was distributed world-wide, earning international recognition as best in its class.

Laurence is a graduate of Purdue University and has worked his entire career with computers and software with several different companies. He has continuing interests in economics, entrepreneurship, botany, chemistry and biochemistry and food production and processing, and also enjoys bicycling, sea kayaking and mountain hiking. Because Laurence has gluten intolerance he has studied the science, the food technology and the issues thoroughly, and created the website http://No-Gluten.Org to assist those who are interested in learning more about gluten-free living.

Debbie is the NW Regional Marketing Manager for Shepherd’s Grain, which is a group of local family farmers from the PNW, who are changing the way farmers are getting paid and who are sustaining our land by switching from conventional farming to a no till production process. She has been in this role for 3 years.

Prior to Shepherd’s Grain, Debbie worked for Nordstrom for 14 years. During her tenure at Nordstrom, she focused in the cosmetic and fragrance department and had the opportunity to open the Lynnwood store as the Department Manager. Her last 4 years, she was a Marketing Buyer and enjoyed the opportunity to travel to New York on a regular basis.

Debbie has always had an interest in eating healthy and knowing where her food comes from. Being acquainted to co-founder of SG, Karl Kupers and growing up in a farming community, she has had an interest in the importance of supporting local farmers, who grow their crops in an environmentally and sustainable manner. Now, she enjoys being an advocate of getting others more involved in buying local and the importance of knowing where their food comes from and the farmers who grew it.

She does love to cook and entertain when time permits. She also enjoys being part of the Chefs Collaborative where they provide educational opportunities for the chefs and producers through our Meet and Greet events.

Since 2005 Gregory Heller has worked with dozens of nonprofit organizations, foundations and socially responsible businesses to deploy Internet strategies, websites and social media strategies through CivicActions, a company he has helped to build and is current part owner of. In that time, the company has grown from 7 people, to 39. Gregory has served CivicActions as Director of Marketing, as well as serving clients as a strategist, trainer, and website architect and engineer.

Before his work with CivicActions, Gregory worked for the New York State Senate and New York State Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, numerous political campaigns in New York City and State, and worked for the NYI Program Office coordinating all-university student events. Gregory also served on New York City Community Board 3 for 6 years where he chaired the Economic Development Committee and sat on the State Liquor Authority Task Force Committee.

Gregory holds a BA and MPA (Public Administration and Nonprofit Management) from New York University College of Arts and Science and Wagner School Of Public Service (respectively) he is also a Certified ScrumMaster (CSM). He has served on the Board of the College Alumni Association at NYU. For 4 years while living in NYC, Gregory prepared gourmet recipes and served his food to hungry people in Tompkins Square Park. As a cater waiter during that same time he would bring leftover meals to hungry people in his neighborhood.

Gregory is passionate about food, ethical and local sourcing, cooking and educating others about good food. You can follow his tweets about these topics at @HungrySeattle.