Bio — Marisa Kontovrakis

ABOUT ME

Former cook turned marketer.

Weird trajectory, I know. “What’s the story,” you ask?

I minored in marketing in college and graduated with a B.B.A. I fell in love with human behavior and psychology in school, but started orbiting the food world shortly after graduating by becoming an event and logistics coordinator for food-related events. This turned into completely pivoting careers. I started to work in a catering kitchen as a savory cook with zero experience, working my way up into management over a few years.

I love kitchen work — the hustle and bustle is simultaneously exhilarating and exhausting. But I became disconnected from what I fell in love with in college, so I left my kitchen career behind to pursue marketing.

HOW I WORK

There’s a tenet in kitchen work: wherever you go, never go empty-handed and never come back empty-handed, either.

Kitchens demand efficiency, multi-tasking, and precision. I translate lessons learned from my kitchen experience into my current work. Each day starts with a prep list: the tasks which need to be completed today, the tasks which would be nice to get to, and the tasks which can hit the back-burner.

I strongly value collaboration across teams, and dip my hand in every pot — I wear quite a few hats. I believe doing good work starts with having a clearly communicated common goal, and coordinating with others to keep each other accountable, supported, and on-track. There’s nothing like being proud of putting out a beautiful final product.

My eye is always on creating value, and I keep that big picture in mind while focusing on the smaller pieces of the puzzle to make sure it all fits together.