Personalities

Cortney Burns

Cortney's Links:

Production Manager

Cortney Burns

Cortney became interested in food at an early age, her favorite childhood outings were trips to the markets to get warm corned beef and munster cheese. In high school she spent time at Kendall culinary school in Chicago and began to fall in love with the craft of cooking. After high school she went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she studied cultual anthropology and the Tibetan language. While in college, Cortney spent a year living in Nepal and India, where she was introduced to exotic spices and favors peaking her desire even further to create food. Upon graduating she moved to Australia and started cooking in restaurants. From Australia, Cortney went back to Chicago, cooked there for a bit, and then packed up her car and move to the Bay area to see what the West Coast culinary scene had to offer.

In 2001 Cortney began working at Café Rouge under the direction of Marcia McBride, where she honed her kitchen skills and began to explore the crafts of butchery and charcuterie. From there she went on to be part of the management team at the original Quince, where her passion for all things hand made really began to blossom. After Quince she spent time cooking at Boulettes Larder, and as Sous Chef at Adagia in Berkeley before moving to Sun Valley, Idaho in 2006 to work as a private chef. Upon arriving back in California in 2008, Cortney cooked in multipule wineries in the Napa and Sonoma Valley and taught public classes at the CIA at Greystone.

Cortney currently works at Bar Tartine managing the production of all the house made products including: dairy culturing, fresh and aged cheese, charcuterie, pickles, spice drying, fermented beverages, and pastries. She has a love for old world techniques, fermentation, and all things cured and dried and believes that these techniques help layer flavors in food to create balanced and exciting flavor combinations.