The NMOP Kitchen
Dietary/Allergy Accomodations:
We are a nut-free facility. We offer fresh and healthy meals, with vegetarian and vegan options daily. In addition, we offer dairy-free and gluten-free options everyday. A high priority is placed on providing well-balanced meals. Please let us know of food allergies prior to arriving at NMOP. In order to maintain rodent and vermin-free living areas, we do not allow food in the cabins. For specific questions or concerns regarding food, please do not hesitate to contact our Executive Director Jenny Beck.
We use many locally sourced food products and we make everything but the bread from scratch. NMOP is known for its delicious and nutritious– and often unusual–meals!
NMOP Kitchen Staff:
Melissa, a native Vermonter, started cooking for NMOP the very first year. She loves dolphins and preparing new and delicious meals. Melissa cooks breakfast and lunch six days a week, and especially loves to prepare our classic Baked Oatmeal, among other favorites!
Melissa works along side two former NMOP composer participants who also love to cook. Welcome Santiago and Kai!
Dr. Kai is a NYC-based clarinetist, improviser, educator, recording musician, and international performing artist – and now a chef! He is a core member of the new music ensemble, PinkNoise, and an active freelancer in the NYC area. An avid cook from a young age, he worked his way through high school and college in restaurant kitchens and attended summer cooking courses at Johnson & Wales University, all while trying to keep up with his clarinet studies. He is a strong believer in the artistic connections between cooking and music, as well as with the power food has to bring a community together in a shared experience.
Santiago, a Colombian composer and vocalist, studied at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana and Manhattan School of Music. Now based in New York, he is a versatile artist involved in composition, performance, and production. Santiago’s compositions have been performed across the Americas and Europe, and he is the composer-in-residence for “MACC Ensemble” in Brooklyn. In 2024, he made his European debut with “Siluetas Lejanas” and his debut at the Lincoln Center with his arrangement of a reconstructed Hatian hymn “Mari Manman Nou”. “With sound, I am finding shape. I compose spaces of experimentation, expansion, contemplation, communication, and plurality. Sound cannot exist in solitude, a characteristic celebrated in my music.”
