Sera Cuni | Co-owner and chef,
Founding member of Les Dames d’Escoffier
Founder, Feed-Well Fridges
Born in Trumbull, Conn., Sera grew up in a family of self-taught cooks who enthusiastically embraced their Italian and Czech heritages. Her childhood is filled with kitchen memories: Draping handmade pastas rolled out by her grandparents’ expert hands over the backs of dining room chairs, stirring pots of garlicky tomato sauce until simmered to perfection, and creaming butter and cottage cheese for flaky Kolacky cookies at Christmastime. For the Cuni family, such traditions, including sharing home-cooked meals together every evening, were the necessary ingredients for an abundant life. The bonding experiences also helped pave the way for Sera’s career. Although a talented athlete who excelled at soccer, Sera’s interest took a significant swing thanks to Saturday mornings with her father, who first introduced her to Julia Child and her cooking shows on PBS. After attending Green Mountain College in Vermont on a soccer scholarship, Sera took her passion for food and cooking back to Connecticut, where she graduated from culinary school. Over the course of her career, Sera has worked as a chef at Main and Hopewell, Americus on the Wharf, and Pastis all in Connecticut; at the Fearrington House Inn in Chapel Hill, and Nordstrom’s Café in Durham. In 2006, Sara Foster hired her as a chef and kitchen manager for the Foster’s Market Chapel Hill restaurant. She was promoted to general manager in 2008. She and her wife Susan purchased the Chapel Hill location in January 2013. Sera still considers Sara Foster a mentor and as such abides by her primary food ethic—that great food doesn’t have to be fancy. Sera further channels her love for food and for supporting women culinary entrepreneurs and young chefs through her membership with the international philanthropic organization, Les Dames ‘d Escoffier. As a founding member and vice president of the N.C. Chapter of Les Dames, Sera has been especially interested in pursuing opportunities to support those in need. To that end, in August 2023, she founded the nonprofit Feed-Well Fridges, a community fridge program that works to eliminate hunger and commercial food waste in Chatham County.
Susan White | Co-owner and marketing manager
Unlike her foodie wife, Susan is a product of the South—a child raised on easy-to-bake casseroles and Sunday lunches of fried chicken, deviled eggs and savory green beans. However, like Sera, Susan also discovered her passion early. Growing up, she loved to write poems and stories, a hobby she eventually mustered up the courage to pursue professionally. A graduate of Campbell University with a BA degree in mass communication, Susan worked for 17 years as a journalist, including for The Daily Reflector in Greenville, N.C., The Winston-Salem Journal, in Winston-Salem, N.C. and The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Va. Susan spent the majority of her journalism career shining a brighter light on social justice issues, including poverty, homelessness, mental illness and hunger. Over the years, she received numerous awards for her emotional and thought-provoking storytelling, including the national Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism for her reporting on children and families. In 2008, she left newspapers and joined the UNC School of Social Work as a strategic communications specialist. In August 2023, Susan left UNC to help manage the community fridge nonprofit Feed-Well Fridges and to launch her own business Micro-Root Media, a communications and consulting firm in Chatham County.
Christina Infanti | Director of Catering
Tina graduated from Appalachian State in 2014 with a degree in nutrition and foods. She discovered her passion for catering and event planning while apprenticing under a wedding planner after college. She currently lives in Durham and enjoys cooking, seeing live music, and hiking in her free time.