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Lourdes Castro
Biltmore Culinary Academy

Teacher, writer, consultant and business owner. Lourdes Castro has built her career on the love of teaching all things culinary.  As previous owner to a well-received recreational cooking school in Miami, she recently accepted an offer by the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, Florida to create their first-ever, on-premise cooking school. In addition to her work with the Biltmore, Lourdes serves as a part-time instructor at New York University’s Food Studies department where she teaches courses in food science. It is this ability to effectively explain culinary concepts and techniques as easily in an academic classroom as in an informal and relaxed kitchen environment that caught the attention of publisher Ten Speed Press. Lourdes is currently working on two books for the publishing house, a Mexican cookbook (Simply Mexican - Spring 09) and a Spanish-English dictionary of culinary terms (Eat, Drink, Think in Spanish – Fall 09).

Born in Miami to Cuban parents, Lourdes is fluent in both English and Spanish. She has served as a personal translator for such noteworthy chefs as Juan Mari Arzak, Pedro Subijana, Dani Garcia, Paco Torreblanca, Harold McGee, and Tetsuya Wakuda for events held by The James Beard Foundation and Madrid Fusion culinary conference.  Her language skills have afforded her other opportunities including being chosen by Bacardi USA to be the face of a video series where she created and explained rum based recipes and cocktails in both English and Spanish.

Lourdes made her first move to New York City in 1990 to pursue her education.  As an undergraduate, she attended New York University where she obtained a degree in Nutrition and Food.  Shortly thereafter, Lourdes went on to Columbia University where she earned a Masters degree in nutritional sciences.  Subsequent to graduating from Columbia, Lourdes obtained her first teaching position at NYU’s Food Studies department.  During that time she also served as an associate at the James Beard Foundation.

Lourdes returned to Miami after receiving an offer from Cristina Saralegui, a well-known Hispanic television talk show host and personality, to work as her personal chef and nutritionist.  During this time, she also served as an instructor at Johnson & Wales University.  By twenty-six years of age, Lourdes was a full time faculty member of the Johnson &Wales School of Culinary Arts.

While in Miami, Lourdes produced and hosted a weekly 3-minute Spanish language radio segment focusing on HIV/AIDS nutrition education that was part of the Hablaremos del SIDA (Let’s Talk about AIDS) program which aired on Miami’s WRHC 1550 AM.  Other media credits include an appearance in Fine Living’s We Live Here, Mega TV’s 22 Minutos and Univision’s Despierta America.

Lourdes’ dream of owning her own business was realized in 2001with the creation of the Ars Magirica Cooking School in Miami, Florida.  With the school in full swing, Lourdes recognized the need for a private chef catering service in Miami and utilized her pool of chef instructors for such a task.  The private chef branch of her business turned into a very successful venture, attracting a niche market of local, professional athletes including Alonzo Mourning and Eddy Jones who were in need of nutritious meals personally prepared for them.  Lourdes sold this business in 2006 in order to pursue other opportunities.

Lourdes is an active member of Les Dames d’Escoffier, and currently lives in New York City.