Anya Fernald is the co-founder and CEO of Belcampo. She is an entrepreneur, chef, and agriculture expert. She has appeared as a judge on the Food Network's Iron Chef America, Iron Chef Gauntlet, and The Next Iron Chef.
Early life and education
Fernald was born on a raw-milk dairy farm outside Munich, Germany, while her parents were teaching and researching abroad. When she was 3 years old, her family moved back to the United States, eventually settling in Palo Alto, California. After graduating from Wesleyan University with a degree in political science, she received a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, leading to work as an itinerant cheesemaker in Europe and North Africa.
Career
Europe (1999–2005)
From 1999 to 2001, Fernald developed and implemented business and marketing plans for small-scale cheese makers in Sicily for a European Union-funded rural development initiative, CoRFiLaC. She then moved on to direct the International Presidia program at Slow Food in Bra, Italy, where she devised and instigated an international micro-investment program that managed business planning and marketing for small-scale artisan food producers in countries such as Madagascar, Sweden, Ecuador and Bosnia between 2001 and 2005.
United States (2006–present)
Soon after returning to California in 2006, Fernald founded a produce distribution company connecting high quality farmers to large institutional buyers, which was later acquired. In 2008 Fernald began working with Alice Waters as executive director of Slow Food Nation to organize and direct a large event event to raise the profile to raise the profile of high quality organic food,. In 2009, Fernald founded Live Culture Co., a business and marketing consulting firm. In 2009, she also founded the Eat Real Festival Company, which produces an annual, two-day food festival that takes place in Oakland, California, and is attended by over 100,000 people each year. This company was acquired in 2015. The festival focuses on food and drinks produced locally, sustainably and organically. In 2010, Fernald's consulting firm Live Culture Co. began working with client Todd Robinson to develop a concept to market products from a ranch he owned in Northern California. This consulting engagement resulted in the development of Belcampo, which Fernald and Robinson founded in 2012. Fernald and Robinson also collaborated on a project in Belize, which later became Copal Tree Farms and Lodge. In Spring 2016, Fernald released her debut cookbook Home Cooked: Essential Recipes for a New Way to Cook for Ten Speed Press to critical acclaim from publications including the Los Angeles Times, Saveur Best of 2016 issue, and Food52.
Belcampo
In November 2012, the first Belcampo Meat Co. storefront opened its doors in Marin County, California, following the opening of Belcampo Butchery, a 20,000 square foot, USDA-approved multi-species slaughter facility designed by animal welfare expert Temple Grandin, and a nearby farm. It has butcher shops and restaurants in Los Angeles, Marin, Santa Monica, San Francisco, San Mateo, Oakland, and New York. Belcampo also sells meat in Erewhon Grocery Stores. Fernald co-founded the company and serves as its CEO.
Television
Anya began working as a judge and sustainable food expert on the Food Network's Iron Chef America Franchise in 2009, which she continued to appear regularly until 2015.' Anya has been named Food and Wine40 Under 40, one of the top 100 female founders in INC Magazine, she has been profiled in The New Yorker, and the New York Times Magazine.' She has been featured in commercials for Toyota and Trager Grills. She has also appeared on CBS This Morning.
Honors
In 2010, Fernald was named one of 40 Big Food Thinkers 40 and Under by Food & Wine magazine, and one of The New York Times' Nifty 50, recognizing America's up-and-coming talent.
