food tour guide profile: carrie sullivan
Part of what makes Edible Excursions so special is the guides who lead the tours. These folks are food and drink experts and can provide deep layers of information on the Bay Area, as well as ably answer guest questions.
Meet Carrie Sullivan who has been a guide since 2008. Carrie leads several tours for Edible Excursions:
Carrie’s sister introduced her to Lisa Rogovin because they both worked for the same Maryland-area publishing house. When both Lisa and Carrie moved to the West Coast, they reconnected in a food-worthy way: Carrie was working as a manager at the Warming Hut Café at Crissy Field. Lisa heard Carrie’s voice and knew immediately that it was Carrie. She told Carrie about her then-new food tour company (Edible Excursions), and Carrie came on board as one of the first guides.
Carrie is passionate about food, eating, sustainability, and recycling and has worked as a private chef, manager, chef-instructor, and manager for the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. She also has formal culinary training, which came in handy for her “day job” as the former Culinary Programs Manager at CUESA (Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture) for more than five years.
At CUESA, Carrie managed programing and fundraising events, solicited and coordinated chefs and their culinary teams for fundraisers, and planned CUESA’s partner events, outreach events, farm and food tours, and market-to-table cooking demos at Jack London and the Ferry Plaza farmers’ markets.
Currently, Carrie shares her expertise with the good food folk at La Cocina.
Edible Excursions caught up with Carrie recently over hot soup bowls from Namu Gaji.
Why do you like working for Edible Excursions?
I have been a tour guide since I was in college. I worked for the college admissions office on campus. I love showing people around and sharing the good things to do, see, and eat. I was giving tours to visiting friends and family before Edible Excursions became a business. It’s a great fit for me.
What’s a special memory from a tour?
When I led our chocolate tour, it was always fun to end at Mosto because people thought they were just going to get a cocktail there. Mosto uses cacao bitters to make a cocktail, and people don’t expect to have chocolate in their drink. They love it!
What’s a fun food fact about you?
I hate raw onions. I can taste them for days.