Ali is a Chef in Brunswick, Maine

Ali in the Owner of Balaboosta, LLC, an Event Consulting Business in Brunswick Maine. She also works as a Consulting Chef and as a Private Chef and is available for Select Private Dinners and Events. Ali is an expert on cooking with the invasive species Green Crab is available for interviews appearance and the like,

As the former consulting chef for Dog Bar Jim, Dirty Larry’s Cone Town and , she helped define, refine and, create menu items. (and was once found behind the grill on Monday mornings making some of the best beakfast sandwiches in the state, and having the a fantastic time doing so!)

She was the Chef/Producer of Willie & Chet’s FOOD to go a weekly Pop-Up at Dog Bar Jim in Brunswick during the 2020 pandemic. Ali was featured chef for Out Standing in the Fields at Forty Acre Farm in the summer of ‘21.

A native New Yorker, Ali fell in love with Maine on her first visit, and since moving to here in 2014, (after 15 years in Philadelphia, where she was a fixture in the restaurant business), she has immersed herself in the local Maine food scene, reveling in its quality and abundance.

Ali has been a huge part of the Green Crab movement since 2015, she has worked tireless to find culinary solutions to problems caused by the invasive species. She is a regular volunteer chef and Board Member chef at Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program, it brings her great joy to have the opportunity to cook for such a worthwhile group of people.

Ali was the Executive Chef of The Brunswick Inn from 2016 -2109 where she created and executed menus for a multitude of special events from weddings to graduation dinners, baby showers to celebrations of life. In 2016 she spearheaded the popular Tuesday Nights Plat Du Jour Dinners, a 3 course fixed price weekly food event, at Inn, which was open to the public and features an ever changing menu of local, seasonal foods. She did a brief stint as the Executive Chef of The Coast Bar at The Daniel Hotel until its untimely and inevitable closure in December of 2019.

She was the Producer and Chef/Partner of Butter+Salt Pop Up along with food writer/chef Christine Burns Rudalevige. She has been found behind the stove at The Robinhood Free Meetinghouse, creating collaborative music dinners with The Arbitare Project, a classical music duo, Maine seafood dinners with The Maine Fisherman’s Association, as well as a few private weddings and events,

Ali lives in Brunswick with her husband Christian, 2 cats and 2 birds and is a member of the New England Chapter of Les Dames D’Escoffier.

PRESS & PUBLIC APPEARANCES

She has appeared on The 207 Show, WMPG Radio Food Stories (see below), and Good Day Philadelphia. Her recipes have been featured in The Crush Newsletter, Food52, The Jewish Exponent, The Forward, self.com, The Portland Press Herald, The Bangor Daily News, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and she’s been featured in The Portland Phoenix, The Times Record, Meal Ticket, Cooking Channel TV.com, Philadelphia Magazine, edible Maine, Maine Women Magazine, Philadelphia Women Magazine, The South Philly Review. National Geographic, Cooking Light, and AAA New England Magazine