Kelly Senyei

I currently work as the Associate Editor of Gourmet Live, a digital reading experience in the form of a free downloadable app for iPad and iPhone. As Content Producer I am responsible for managing the brand’s blog, writing feature-length stories for the app, managing all social media presence online and appearing in a monthly cooking segment on NBC’s NY Non-Stop.

I have interviewed everyone from Wolfgang Puck and Eric Ripert to Frank Bruni and Tom Colicchio. I have also written in depth about the topics of cooking in the 1800s, the frozen yogurt fallacy, Nocturnal Sleep-Related Eating Disorder, professional athlete’s diets, the cupcake cliché, the worst kitchen calamities, low-carb diets, extreme couponing and more. For a selection of my blogging clips, please visit the Gourmet Live blog.

The T-Mobile store in Longwood sells a variety of Sidekicks, including the latest model, the Sidekick 08. Photo by Kelly Ann Senyei.

By Kelly Ann Senyei

This article appeared in print on October 16, 2008, on pg. 7 of The Bronx Times Reporter and was also published on ColumbiaJournalist.org [Oct. 5, 2008].

NEW YORK — It was like any other workday last week for Luis Reyes, a jewelry salesman in the south Bronx neighborhood of Longwood. But as Reyes walked outside after work at his store on Southern Boulevard, he saw that his car window was smashed. Reyes knew instantly what the burglar had been after.

“They’d gone through my bag to take my Sidekick,” said Reyes. “I paid $400 for that phone!”

The T-Mobile Sidekick, a text-friendly phone that allows users to access the Internet and to chat online with Instant Messenger, has become the gadget of choice for Longwood and Hunts Point thieves. Lt. James Koschmerl, who works in the Special Operations Unit of the nearby 41st precinct, said the Sidekick’s easily exchanged SIM card makes the phone a popular item among thieves. Read the rest of this entry →

By Kelly Ann Senyei

This article/slideshow was published on ColumbiaJournalist.org [March 16, 2009].

NEW YORK – While many Americans will sit down to fresh turkey, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie this Thanksgiving, pre-holiday visitors to New York’s World Financial Center got an unusual reminder that for others, the holiday dinner comes out of donated cans.

Canstruction, a food charity organization, hosted its 16th annual canned food sculpture competition last week, featuring designs built by top New York City architectural and engineering companies. Each of the 40 sculptures were created entirely from cans of food – 161,149 cans to be exact.

“It’s an inventive way to present an old problem,” said Marianne Buttell, a visitor to the Canstruction display. “People can enjoy it, and then they know it’s going to a good cause.”

Canstruction uses the sculpture gimmick to bring fresh attention to the perennial problem of world hunger. The group is a foundation of the Society for Design Administration, which describes the annual competition as “the most unique food drive in the world.”
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By Kelly Ann Senyei

NEW YORK – The south Bronx is host to the largest food distribution center in the world at the Hunts Point Cooperative Market. But while fresh produce may be in abundance for the millions of consumers the warehouse ships to, the residents in Hunts Point are fighting a lack of available fresh fruits and vegetables from a dwindling number of local supermarkets. The impact of this paradox is seen in the community’s citywide high obesity rate. It’s an epidemic that many experts say has resulted not only from the less than half dozen regular, full-service supermarkets available to the more than 500,000 south Bronx residents, but also from the abundance of fast food restaurants and the Hispanic population’s tendency to overfeed their children.

Dr. Sharon Akabas, associate director at Columbia University’s Institute of Human Nutrition said the obesity epidemic can’t be solved by any one specific solution.

“Some people believe increasing produce availability would help,” Dr. Akabas said. “But that in and of itself is not an answer. Adding produce to an already high calorie diet just adds calories. So where’s that going to get us?”
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Inflatable rats and pigs have become synonymous with union protests like this picket line by members of the Local 79 union in New York City. Photo by Kelly Ann Senyei.

By Kelly Ann Senyei

NEW YORK — A small group of union construction workers huddle together outside a worksite on the corner of 37th Street and 8th Avenue in Manhattan. They gather around an electric generator that gives off heat as it pumps air into a 15-foot tall inflatable rat. The rat’s pointy teeth and beady red eyes stare upwards at a non-union construction site for a new apartment building that’s bustling with movement and noise.

The group of men, all members of the Local 79 Construction and General Building Laborers’ Union, have gathered to picket the non-union construction site, which is rumored to be paying undocumented workers at below the pay line.

“This is the thing that most average people walk by and don’t understand what we’re doing,” says Tom Orlando, a member of the Local 79. “These people literally have their hands in your pocket and they’re stealing your money because they’re not paying their workers enough. It’s not the workers’ fault. It’s the greedy owner.” Read the rest of this entry →

The $1,000 paella dish included 2 pounds of fresh Maine lobster. Photo by Kelly Ann Senyei.

By Kelly Ann Senyei

NEW YORK — Investment banks are crashing, gas prices are spiking and food prices are soaring. But despite the declining economy, Sofrito restaurant in New York City has added a new item to its October menu, and it comes with a $1,000 price tag. Ricardo Cardona, executive chef and creative director of Sofrito, created the $1,000 paella recipe and is donating 20 percent of the proceeds to AYUDA, the Alliance for Young Urban Design and the Arts.

Sofrito, located at 400 East 57th St. in Manhattan, serves traditional Puerto Rican cuisine, including vegetarian and meat paellas that range in price from $15 to $23. Cardona said he wanted to do something extravagant despite the wilting economy.

“Everyone’s panicking about the economy and they don’t want to go out,” Cardona said. “But we have to do the opposite. The worst thing to do is panic.”

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By Kelly Ann Senyei

NEW YORK — It was out with Joe Six-pack, and in with Joe the Plumber, at tonight’s final presidential debate between Senators Barack Obama and John McCain. The debate, hosted by Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY, featured the candidates seated side-by-side, which was only one of many differences compared to the previous two debates. Laundry lists of talking points, a defining characteristic of past encounters between the candidates, were replaced by pointed jabs, particularly by McCain.

“Senator Obama, I am not President Bush,” McCain said. “If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should’ve run four years ago.”

McCain continued on the attack, asking Obama to give him an example of when he has stood up to the leaders of his party. Obama responded by highlighting his support of charter schools, which he said made him unpopular among schoolteachers. While both candidates traded punches during the debate, McCain appeared to be more on the offensive than Obama, who has maintained a clear lead in recent national polls. Read the rest of this entry →