For nearly two decades, Miriam Garron ’83 has played a variety of roles at the Food Network, from on-air talent on Throwdown With Bobby Flay to her current role as senior director of the professional kitchen.
Garron grew up in what she calls a “food-obsessed” family. “My dad adored raw oysters, which was not a thing in the ’70s suburbs,” says Garron, who was raised in Wilmette, Ill. “We never got to go to McDonald’s.”
But it wasn’t until she was a mother that she realized she loved being in the kitchen, and much later that she launched a career in the food industry. At 32, while raising two children, Garron signed up for a 12-week course held three nights a week at a small culinary school in a Manhattan brownstone. Peter Kump’s New York Cooking School, now the prestigious Institute for Culinary Education, was known for teaching techniques and foundations rather than just recipes.
After earning her certificate, Garron held a variety of jobs in restaurants and food-related fields before landing a freelance gig in the kitchen at the Food Network. She then joined the staff and, a few years later, went on to appear in more than 100 episodes of Throwdown With Bobby Flay (while continuing her responsibilities running the network kitchen). In each episode, Flay cooked the specialty dish of another chef and judges decided whose version was better. Garron helped the chef prepare everything from a wedding cake to a dish known as “the puffy taco.” Garron traveled to the opposing chef’s location a couple of days before filming and supervised all the prep work, from shopping for ingredients to managing the logistics of cooking before an audience. “I did a little bit of everything,” Garron says. She also collaborated with Flay on his Throwdown! cookbook.
These days, she oversees the food stylists, recipe developers, and recipe testers who work at the network’s kitchens. She misses the collaboration that comes with her job, which has been remote since the pandemic: “I love being in the kitchen with other people and dissecting a dish: Why did it work? What would you do differently? Someone will smell what you’re doing or see it on the plate and suggest something.”
In the last year, Garron has given up eating meat, so her home cooking has focused on vegetarian dishes. Like many food professionals, her meal prep for her and her husband is bare bones. “In the summer, I’ll get a great ear of corn and tomatoes and eat that for dinner. In winter, it’s a bowl of beans in a garlicky broth — maybe I’ll mix in greens or a tomato sauce.” She has a fondness for pickling, which supplies her table as well. “Pickles and bread and butter — I could make a meal out of that.”
Garron graduated from Colgate with a degree in philosophy.