Hi, I’m Katie — baker, teacher, and founder of Zarov Kitchen.
Food has always been part of my story. I fell in love with cooking as a kid, proudly hosting Cooking with Katie in my fourth-grade classroom and insisting on plating family meals like we were dining at a 4-star restaurant. I was always experimenting — once, I piped herbed cream cheese into tiny hollowed-out cherry tomatoes because I believed hors d’oeuvres were essential to family dinner.
Over the years, food became more than a passion — it became a way of connecting with people and places. While living in Spain, I learned to love seafood paella, arroz cubano, and bocadillos with Manchego and lomo. I jotted down recipes from my host mom, shared slow-cooked fideuà on a friend’s farm in León, and spent a summer in Ireland learning how to make jam from just-picked blackberries.
While teaching in Madrid, I even helped create a bilingual cooking class where kids learned to make chocolate chip cookies and energy bars — and also why you can’t eat candy every day (much to their dismay).
I started Zarov Kitchen after a big life change — being laid off while nine months pregnant. Becoming a stay-at-home mom was unexpected, and while I’ve grown to love it, I also craved something creative that was just mine.
I bake everything in small batches, with attention to detail and a genuine love for good food. Welcome to Zarov Kitchen.