Kate McDonough

Katherine A. McDonough(born 1950) is the Editor of TheCityCook.com, a web-based resource for urban home cooks. She owns and produces the web site with her husband, Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Mark Dichter, who takes all photographs for the site and produces its podcast audio features.

Education and Early Career

Born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, McDonough is a graduate of Presentation of Mary Academy in Methuen, Massachusetts(1968), Boston University(B.S., 1972) and Harvard University from which she received a Master in city and regional planning from The Graduate School of Design(1977).

McDonough began her career in Boston (1969) at WBUR-FM, an NPR station, as the associate producer of a radio drama produced by The Corporation For Public Broadcasting(1970). In 1972 she joined WCVB-TV, the ABC affiliate, where she was a Peabody Award-winning producer of news and public affairs programs. ["Peabody Award Winners". (n.d.) Retrieved on October 1, 2008 from http://www.peabody.uga.edu/winners/details.php?id=674] She left WCVB-TV in 1975 to attend graduate school. In 1976, while still completing her graduate studies, she joined The New England Regional Commission, comprised of the Governors of the the six New England states(Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont) and a Co-Chairman appointed by the President of the United States, as the Commission's Special Assistant for Public Affairs. Two years later (1978) she continued her work in the area of regional economic development but from the perspective of the private sector by becoming the Vice President of Programs for The New England Council, a six-state economic development organization based in Boston and Washington, DC.

In 1981 McDonough joined Citicorp(laterCitigroup) in the Office of the Chairman, Walter Wriston, widely regarded as the single most influential commercial banker of his time. [Walter B. Wriston. (2008, September 18). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:40, October 1, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Walter_B._Wriston&oldid=239291774] Her responsibility was to develop programs and communications to improve service quality throughout Citicorp's aggressively growing global businesses. As a Vice President she worked with consumer, corporate and other institutional banking businesses around the world to help improve the consumer experience. After four years with Citibank, she was able to bring together her background in communications, economic development, public affairs and financial services by joining Adams & Rinehart, Inc., a private corporate and financial public relations firm, to lead their relationship with Manufacturers Hanover Corporation and other financial clients. She remained with Adams & Rinehart from 1985 to 1991, becoming the firm's first woman Managing Director and a member of its operating committee. Adams & Rinehart was later sold to Ogilvy & Mather, [(1986). Ogilvy To Buy Adams & Rinehart. "The New York Times". Retrieved October 1, 2008, from http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DE3DB1F3AF93AA15756C0A960948260#] which soon thereafter became owned by WPP, Inc., [WPP Group. (2008, September 30). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 18:04, October 1, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=WPP_Group&oldid=242083246] the global advertising enterprise.

In 1991 McDonough joined Barnes & Noble, Inc., the book retailing company, as Vice President of Public Affairs. She was with the firm for about a year, a time of transition in her career that led to her launching McDonough & Associates, a financial communications and public relations firm whose clients included Lazard, Oppenheimer Funds, Standard & Poor's, Chemical Bank, Dime Bancorp, NYCE, Manulife Financial, and other leading financial companies, as well as other industry leaders including Perry Ellis International, Barnes & Noble, and Carolina Herrera, Ltd. She sold McDonough & Associates to Omnicom Group, Inc. in 2000. [Elliot, Stuart. (1997). Agencies Make Three Acquisitions. "The New York Times". Retrieved on October 1, 2008, from http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B05E4DB1F39F93AA35752C0A961958260]

How A Corporate Career Led to Creating The City Cook

Throughout these years, McDonough always cooked. In 2002, she achieved a long-held dream and attended The French Culinary Institute in Manhattan, completing the 110-hour "La Technique" course for serious amateurs. Her other food and cooking studies have included classes with Marcella Hazan, the late Jack Ubaldi, and Faith Willinger in Florence. She also studies food writing with Alan Richman, the James Beard award-winning writer and restaurant critic.

In 2005, a chance encounter with a woman in the produce aisle of the Manhattan mega-grocer, Fairway, gave McDonough the idea to create TheCityCook.com. The woman was in a panic to buy the ingredients for a major holiday but she didn't know how to buy an onion. [The City Cook Welcome, Retrieved on October 1, 2008, from http://www.thecitycook.com/about/welcome] McDonough saw herself and millions of others in that woman -- someone who wants to cook, is willing to take chances and try new recipes, but is challenged by buying ingredients, menu planning, and fitting the daily task of cooking into over-committed urban lives.

After two years of development, Kate launched TheCityCook.com in February 2007. It contains a vetted list of more than 360 New York food merchants, recipes for weekday and weekend cooking, ideas for entertaining in small city apartments, information about urban food resources and trends, and most of all - advocacy to cook at home.

In 2008 The City Cook, Inc. received a trademark for its brand name and its friendly kitchen skyline logo, meeting the rigorous criteria of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Other Responsibilities and Interests

In addition to her love of cooking, McDonough loves New York and is a passionate urbanist. In 2006 she was appointed by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn to be a member of Community Board 5, New York City's Midtown community board. She sits on Community Board 5's Land Use and Zoning and Transportation Committees [Land Use and Zoning. (n.d.). Retrieved October 1, 2008, from http://www.cb5.org/comm_land.php4] and is also the Co-Chair of the Community Advisory Committee to the New York State development of Moynihan Station.

A life-long music fan and an amateur pianist, she has also studied music theory at Mannes College in New York and is a piano student of Eugenia Ostrovsky.

McDonough and her husband, Mark Dichter, live in Manhattan.

References

External Links

* [http://www.thecitycook.com/ The City Cook]
* [http://www.myspace.com/thecitycook The City Cook on MySpace]
* [http://www.cb5.org/ Community Board 5]