Welcome to Local Harvest!
Join us on Wednesday, October 21, 2026 at 6pm, for the Foodshed Alliance Annual Gala, an evening celebrating the farmers, chefs, partners, volunteers, supporters, and community members who make our work possible. Our signature event brings together the very best of our local food system, where locally grown ingredients are transformed into unforgettable culinary creations by talented regional chefs. It’s a night to gather, connect, and celebrate the people and partnerships that nourish our communities.
Local Harvest is a celebration of everything we’ve grown together and an investment in everything still to come. We hope you’ll join us for an unforgettable evening of exceptional food, inspiring stories, and a shared commitment to cultivating a healthier future for our region.
Regional Chef and Beverage Artisan Showcase
Luis Blasini Sinchi
Luis Blasini Sinchi (aka SanBlas) is a chef whose work bridges cultures, memories, and meticulous technique. Born to a Sicilian-Peruvian family, Luis began cooking professionally in 2010 after completing culinary school and earning a degree in Tourism and Hospitality Management. He spent the early years of his career refining his skills in Italian cuisine—particularly fresh pasta—at respected restaurants in New York City and Jersey City. His culinary identity took a transformative turn in 2014 while living in the San Blas neighborhood of Cusco, Peru. There, far from home and family, the local community embraced him. Cooking became not just a skill, but a means of connection and survival. The experience deeply shaped his approach to food, rooting it in authenticity, humility, and intercultural exchange. The name SanBlas has stayed with him ever since—both as a personal reminder and a professional ethos.
In 2026, Luis launched MUNAY, a Peruvian kitchen concept where he reimagined childhood dishes through modern and Italian techniques. Drawing from his mother’s heritage in Huancayo and his Sicilian background, he crafted a menu that was both deeply personal and globally inspired. Luis’s cooking is seasonal, thoughtful, and story-driven—built around well-crafted dishes that honor his roots while embracing innovation. For him, food is memory, identity, and an ongoing
dialogue between cultures
About MUNAY
MUNAY comes from the Quechua word for love. Not the surface level kind, but the kind that stays with you, that lives in your hands and in your bones.
It is what turns simple ingredients into something that reaches beyond just good flavor and [invokes, activates, ignites] the soul (or spirit/spirit of the Andes). It is why a single bite can feel like a memory, like belonging, like home… even if you have never tasted it before.
For Chef Luis Blasini Sinchi, cooking has always been rooted in this: amor y cariño. It is what he learned at home from the women who raised him nurtured in a love that is not loud, but undeniable. A love you feel without it needing to be explained. That is why every dish carries intention whether he is cooking for five people or fifty, in a tiny kitchen or a
brand new one.
That is MUNAY: love in motion, love in service, love that quietly pulls people in.
And let’s be clear, MUNAY is not a slogan, a marketing hook, or something borrowed from the past. For Chef Luis, this phrase has never been a facade. It is a standard. A way of moving. A promise by which he cooks. Deeply Peruvian at heart, endlessly curious in execution, always guided by emotion and intuition,
never by trend. MUNAY is hospitality that lands with meaning and lingers with devotion. It is not just a concept, it is genuine love you can actually taste and with every bite – a cultural experience.
Kate Munning
Kate Munning is a curious cook and bon vivant who tends a small but mighty food forest on Schooley’s Mountain. Her passion for the land has led to a wide-ranging array of endeavors: cultivating River Valley Community Grains, helping to establish Foodshed Alliance’s LocalShare program, and lending her recipes and palate to Man Skirt Brewing. Kate writes for Edible Jersey and Bury Me in New Jersey, and she served as a Genesis trustee for 12 years. By day she manages communications for The Land Conservancy of New Jersey.
Alexis Sicklick
Chef Alexis Sicklick is the chef and founder of Syncopated, where she offers guests the chance to dine to the ‘beet’ of her culinary rhythm through playful, vegetable-forward pop-up dinners. She began her career studying and graduating at the top of her class from both The Culinary Institute of America and Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration. After finishing her education, she moved to New York City and spent time in the kitchens of L’Artusi, Annisa, Dirt Candy, Aquavit, and most recently as the Executive Chef of Balaboosta. Currently, Alexis works as a Lead Chef Instructor at Hudson Table in Hoboken and Brooklyn, where she teaches cooking classes, carries out dinners and events, and participates in their extremely popular chef competitions on a weekly basis. Alexis is also a self-published author, having written a holiday cookbook inspired by The Nutcracker during 2020, and she appeared as a competitor on the premiere episode of Food Network’s It’s CompliPlated, a plant-based competition series with Tabitha Brown and Maneet Chauhan.
With over 10 years of professional experience in some of New York’s top restaurants, Alexis is grounded in a strong, diversified foundation from which she loves to break away whenever possible. Alexis is also enamored with spices and brings a global perspective to her menus, always taking guests on a journey with dishes that are truly personal, unexpected, and presented with undeniably delicious twists.
Alexandra Senatore, RDN
Ali Senatore, RDN, CDN, is an Executive Chef and Registered Dietitian and the founder of Reimagined Nutrition, LLC, a North Jersey company built on a rare combination: professional kitchen training and clinical nutrition credentials in one person. A graduate of The Culinary Institute of America, Ali has cooked under two-Michelin-star chefs, earned two ACF medals, and became the first RDN to receive ACF recognition in team culinary competitions. She spent several years as a private chef to touring musicians, managing complex dietary needs under real performance pressure — experience that shaped her approach to food that has to work medically and taste like it came from a chef.
Reimagined Nutrition serves Bergen County, North Jersey, and NYC with specialized and recovery meal plans, corporate café and office lunch programs, full-service catering and event staffing, and one-on-one nutrition counseling. Every menu starts with seasonal ingredients from local growers and the freshest local meat and seafood. Ali’s mission is simple: meals made with you, for you — where culinary excellence meets intentional nutrition.
John Thomas
With more than 20 years in hospitality, Chef John took an unconventional path to the kitchen. A Clifton native, musician, and former touring musician, he was introduced to many different foods and cultures through his travels, sparking his passion for food and cooking.
His first cooking position was at Zinburger in Clifton, where he was one of the restaurant’s first key hourly cooks. There, he learned the importance of fresh, high-quality ingredients and the speed and energy of a busy kitchen. From there, he worked in restaurants including Zeppelin Hall in Jersey City, David Burke Orange Lawn, Upper Montclair Country Club, and The Saddle River Inn, while also spending time as an executive sous chef for a leading private airline company. By the end of 2021, after years of working in kitchens and questioning the status quo, he decided it was time to branch out on his own with the guidance of an old friend. With the help of his wife, children, and mother, The BEASTRO private catering was born, built around unapologetic cultural street-food fusion.
Drawing from his many culinary influences, Chef John combines bold flavors with both traditional and modern techniques, creating dishes like Lomo Saltado egg rolls and vegetable-ash picanha with jalapeño lenticote and tomato confit. His work earned Best Bites recognition in 2023, a spot competing on Food Network’s Chopped, and the opportunity to go head-to-head with his mentor, Chef David Burke, in Burke’s own restaurant.
Eric Heinel
Chef John then found himself in New Providence, where he connected with Eric Heinel. Heinel was looking to take Providence Bar & Kitchen to the next level. Today, the two are growing alongside Heinel Hospitality with a shared focus on building a food program rooted in local farmers, small businesses, and strong community connections.
Eric Heinel grew up around restaurants, dining everywhere from truck-stop taco stands to Michelin-starred restaurants. With a father who collected wine and two parents who were great cooks, he developed an early appreciation for quality food, wine, and the pairings that make a meal memorable. With more than 16 years in hospitality, Eric has worked across a range of restaurants and concepts, including Darden, Landry’s, Harvest Group, and the Voltaggio Brothers, before stepping into ownership.
Today, Eric brings those experiences to Providence Bar & Kitchen, where the focus is simple: exceptional food, thoughtful wine pairings, warm hospitality, and genuine value.
Sophia Curtis
Sophia Curtis is the founder of Sour Bellies, a New Jersey nonprofit dedicated to bringing people together through hands-on fermentation and food education. A baker and fermentation enthusiast, Sophia teaches communities how to make foods like sourdough, kimchi, and pickles while finding creative ways to preserve and transform rescued produce.
Sophia has also partnered with Foodshed Alliance through our LocalShare program, helping turn gleaned produce from local farms into nourishing, preserved foods for the community. Her work brings together fermentation, food education, and a deep commitment to making the most of the food our local farms have to offer.
Joseph Fisher
Since 2015, Joseph Fisher, owner and head brewer of Man Skirt Brewing, has been crafting high-quality, traditional beer styles in the heart of Hackettstown, NJ. As a small, community-minded brewery, Man Skirt is passionate about making great beer while strengthening its connection to the local food and farming community.
Each year, they’re putting an even greater emphasis on local ingredients, bringing the flavors of this region into the brewing process and celebrating the people and places that make our local food system so special.
Dan Schneider
At Ironbound Farm, diversity is at the heart of everything they do. From their regenerative farm and diverse collection of apple varieties to a growing network of partner farms and foragers, Ironbound is helping build a more resilient regional food system.
Their ciders celebrate the flavors of New Jersey, made with heritage Newark apple varieties and unique, locally sourced ingredients from farms, fields, and woodlands across the region. By supporting farmers and championing regenerative practices, Ironbound is helping revive regional orcharding—and bringing a taste of New Jersey to every glass.
William Tal
Tradition might hold the map, but curiosity leads the way.
Living Spirits is a New Jersey distillery dedicated to exceptional craft, creativity, and bringing people together. Their small-batch spirits, housemade liqueurs and apéritifs, and handcrafted cocktails are
inspired by New Jersey’s farms, gardens, and makers, with a focus on discovering new ingredients, techniques, and flavors.
They’re currently aging their first-ever bourbons using grain sourced by River Valley Community Grains and milled at Marksboro Mills, including high rye from Genesis and buckwheat from Diamond J Farm in Oldwick.
At Living Spirits, local is more than an ingredient. It’s a reason to gather, stay curious, and create something worth sharing.
What to Expect at Local Harvest
Get Involved
Interested in becoming a sponsor? Sponsorship opportunities are now available and offer meaningful ways to support our mission while connecting with a community committed to local food, thriving farms, and healthy communities.
Are you a chef, restaurant, or beverage artisan interested in participating? We are currently accepting expressions of interest from culinary professionals who want to showcase their talents while supporting a stronger regional food system.
