Chef RenČe Senne
Chef RenČe Senne has enjoyed tea and food ever since she
can remember. And she has been cooking almost as long — in fact she created
her first cake when she was not yet nine years old. It was too dry — consequently
she quickly developed a second sense for the proportions needed to make moist
flavorful cakes!
After a detour in college where she majored in music,
Renée moved to Paris to attend the École de Cuisine La Varenne, where
she was recognized as a top student. Armed with diplomas in culinary studies
and pastry, she returned stateside in 1990, to teach at
Peter Kump's New York
Cooking School (now the Institute of Culinary Education).
Soon upstate New York — her birthplace — called. She
opened a first award-winning restaurant, RenČe's, in Ithaca New York, followed
by another. Finally she returned to her greatest interest, pastry, and
developed Ithaca's only French-style pâtisserie.
RenČe now teaches culinary skills to store chefs and customers at the East Coast grocery chain Wegmans, trains cooks for homes of special needs children and adults,
and volunteers as a chef for the nutrition programs of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County....and has joined Taste Science LLC and Pairteas to contribute her knowledge and skills to the adventure of pairing foods with teas.
Virginia Utermohlen Lovelace MD
In the winter of 2012, RenČe was approached by one of her ardent fans, Virginia Utermohlen Lovelace, to collaborate on Taste Science LLC, and
create delicious recipes for pairing with teas according to the scientific biology-based system that Virginia developed.
Virginia first experienced tea as a six year old crossing the Atlantic on an English passenger freighter, the Cunarder "Media." With few passengers, and only one other youngster besides her sister, there was little for her to do but to join the grown-ups in the lounge, where tea was served all day. Her natural curiosity led her to try this strangely aromatic brew, with and without lemon, with and without milk. She wasn't sure she really liked it in any combination, but put up a brave front for the ladies who plied her with cup after cup. Of course, each cup was accompanied by a cookie, which sweetened the deal!
Fast forward through a long time when Virginia didn't drink tea, or coffee either ó cola drinks were her favorite stimulant through college (where she majored in physics), through medical school, through an internship and residency in pediatrics (she's Board Certified, but does not practice), and a post-doctoral fellowship. She ended up on the faculty of the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University, still relying on cola drinks...
Her tea epiphany came about while she was studying the taste system, and how people differ in their experience of taste. Her research led her to create a booth at the National Restaurant Association, where attendees could sit down, fill out questionnaires, and take a taste sensitivity test. One of these attendees, China Mist®'s teasmith Scott Svihula, invited her to take part in World Tea Expo 2010, and the die was cast.
Virginia retired from her faculty position and started Taste Science LLC, to develop a scientific system for understanding how flavors interact and how to pair beverages — especially different teas — with different foods.
Pairteas.com offers you the results!