New chefs bring fresh ideas to Root Gourmet

Just in time for the summer season, Chef Elizabeth Kornheiser has been named as the new chef manager at Root Gourmet ,and Chef Angela Nye is promoted into the pastry chef position for both Nage and Root Gourmet.

Root Gourmet General Manager Rich Garrahan says, “Chef Liz is the perfect person to carry on the Root Gourmet ideals of fresh, from scratch, local food combined with friendly service.”

Kornheiser started cooking for Clyde's Restaurant Group in Washington, D.C., at age 16. She graduated from George Washington University with a BBA in hospitality. She continued her schooling and graduated from the Pastry Arts Program at L'Academie de Cuisine in Gaithersburg, Md. in 2010. Kornheiser worked at Blue Moon as the pastry chef and catering chef from 2008-2013. She started working for Root Gourmet /Nage in 2013 and is excited about the new position and challenges.

Kornheiser enjoys simple food done well from scratch and says, “It's often most challenging to bring straightforward food to another level.” She also notes that she likes to use Asian and Latino flavors in her cooking and adores fresh bread and pasta. The new Root Gourmet summer menu is clearly representative of these flavors and inspirations.

Nye grew up baking with her parents. At an early age, she was already developing recipes to enter in the local fairs. She took a cooking class in high school and realized it was her calling. Nye has her baking and pastry degree from the New England Culinary Institute. Last summer, she interned in New Orleans. She fell so in love with the city’s food scene she stayed there for a year and a half. In an effort to come closer to home (she grew up in Vermont) Nye found herself in Rehoboth Beach.

The chefs just recently did some tweaking to the Root Gourmet pastry offerings, and Nye is developing fresh summer desserts for the Nage menu as well. “It’s so much fun to come up with fun, interesting desserts with the bounty of local ingredients that are starting to come in from the farms each week,” Nye says.

Root Gourmet, at 19724 Coastal Highway, is open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week. Root Gourmet just celebrated its second birthday prior to Memorial Day.