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Team / Lenox, MA ![Headshot of Rachel Portnoy, Demonstration Chef at Canyon Ranch Lenox.]()
Rachel Portnoy
Demonstration Chef / Instructor
Chef Rachel leads cooking and baking classes for guests at Canyon Ranch Lenox in the Berkshires. Her specialties include bread baking, gluten-free and vegan baking, vegetarian and vegan cooking, low-glycemic cooking, and international cuisines.
Selected Highlights
BA, English Literature, Wesleyan University
MA, English Literature, Sussex University, UK
MA, Writing, University of Maryland, College Park
Pastry Diploma, Le Cordon Bleu, London, UK
Chef Rachel has 30 years of experience as a vegetarian and pastry chef. She has worked in Michelin-starred restaurants in London, France, and Washington, D.C., including a Relais and Chateaux property in the Adirondacks. For 17 years, she and her husband owned and operated Chez Nous Bistro in the Berkshires, where Rachel led as a pastry chef until December 2021.
In her role with our Food & Nutrition team at Canyon Ranch Lenox, Chef Rachel holds baking and cooking classes and assists guests with their goals to prepare and eat healthful meals. When it comes to eating well, Chef Rachel realizes that people often read a diet book and set goals but can easily get lost or frustrated without the skills and ingredient knowledge that will work best for them. “I love demystifying techniques and ingredients to show guests how fun and delicious food can be. It helps to validate all of the other lessons they are learning here, with ways that work for them to cook and eat well going forward.”
In her downtime, Chef Rachel can often be found reading, writing, hiking, going to the theatre, or spending quality time with her son and husband. A lover of languages, she is fluent in French and is currently learning Spanish.
Her words of wisdom? “Be kind to yourself.”
For speaking engagements, please contact us .
