Latest news with #DeVita
Business Insider
19-07-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
I'm a private chef in New York City. Sending one DM changed my entire career trajectory.
This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Maddy DeVita, 26, a private chef and content creator based in New York City. It has been edited for length and clarity. For me, the spring of 2022 was spent applying to pretty much every job under the sun that I was remotely interested in. I had been working at a global health nonprofit since graduating from college during the pandemic, but realized that, despite always thinking I'd go into medicine, I actually wanted to work in food. My cover letter was sparse — I didn't have any professional experience, I just loved to cook, and was a halfway knowledgeable home chef. The search felt endless. I interviewed at World Central Kitchen and never heard back. I tried test kitchens, like Food52, to no avail. At one point, I decided to try going into management consulting, because I'd at least make a lot of money. Rejections kept rolling into my inbox, and I reached a breaking point. Related video When she started her career switch, DeVita had zero professional food experience. Maddy DeVita A string of rejections made me braver But the rejections also made me bold — what else did I have to lose? What's something crazier I could try? I was so used to getting nos, so one more wasn't going to make much of a difference. I'd been following a small Italian farm, Ebbio, on Instagram for a while, so I sent them a DM to see if there was any way to work together. They read it but didn't respond, but I weirdly wasn't deterred. I'd been turned away from so many jobs at that point, so I figured I'd just pitch myself to them once more. Related stories Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know And this time, it worked. They responded and said they were working on a cookbook project and that they'd love to have me help. By early August, I'd booked a flight to Italy and put in my two weeks' notice. DeVita spent six weeks on a farm. Maddy DeVita Quitting was never part of my plan It's not like I woke up one day and decided to quit my job. In fact, as the supremely logical oldest of three girls, I never thought I'd quit without a clear career plan. If I'd gotten an offer from any of the more practical jobs I'd applied to, I probably would've taken it. So many people are stuck in the thought loop I was in: "Oh my gosh, I want to do this, but it will never happen," or "I'm not the type of person who would do this." I learned, though, that there's actually a narrow pool of people who actually go after the crazy idea, so your odds of getting what you want might be better than you'd first think. After spending six weeks on the farm and getting back to New York, I enrolled in culinary school and started private chefing for clients in the city after graduating. I kept posting content on my food Instagram, HandMeTheFork, which had mainly consisted of filtered photos of avocado toast when I first started my frantic job search. The decision to go to Italy changed her whole career path. Maddy DeVita Listening to my gut gave me the life I love now I spent most of the past two years cooking consistently for families — getting embedded in their homes, spending a summer out in the Hamptons, making everything from meal-prepped lunches to Sunday dinner — but I don't do that as much these days, since I'm starting to earn money from my online content. Now, I'm doing more one-off, larger dinner parties and figuring out how to manage the world of social media, so my schedule is way more flexible. If I'm not cooking for an event and I'm feeling disciplined, I'll start my day with a Barry's Bootcamp-style workout class, which kicks my butt. I'll then do my admin work at a café in my Brooklyn neighborhood, likely while listening to bossa nova music, my current obsession. After finishing up any video or Substack editing and recipe planning, I'll go grocery shopping, ideally at the farmers market. DeVita is now a full-time private chef. Maddy DeVita The afternoon is usually filled with recipe testing and filming content, and I actually try to limit my social media time to the midday hours. Evening means cooking dinner for myself and my fiancée, and doing some more editing. All along, I've just wanted days that are dynamic, that are always different, and I've found that. Every day is different. Maddy DeVita Listening to my gut has been my north star these past few years, though it often feels like my brain has to catch up to my instincts. I haven't made decisions based on right or wrong, or the next most practical career step, but instead based on what I'm called to do in the moment. Of course, I've gotten lucky, but I'm so glad that I've led with what I feel pulled to internally. While at my college reunion a few months ago, I saw a ton of friends who were in my pre-med class, some of whom have finished med school and are fully doctors. It was such a surreal experience, realizing that could have easily been me, but that, despite my early expectations, it's not my life at all.
Eater
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Eater
How Maddy DeVita Pulls Off the Perfect Dinner Party
It's the Friday morning rush at Paisanos in Boerum Hill. There's a constant ding of the doorbell as people shuffle in and out of the neighborhood butcher shop. Private chef Maddy DeVita steps inside. Her eyes drift up to the 65-pound stravecchio provolone wheels hanging from the ceiling as she makes her way over to the butcher counter. She's here to pick up the centerpiece for tonight's dinner party: a spiraled Italian sausage. Paisanos is just the first stop on a full itinerary of dinner party prep. It's days like this, when she's busy running around the city planning elaborate meals, that brought DeVita out of the kitchen and into the public eye. Her journey started in 2020 on Instagram and TikTok, where DeVita documented her internship at a small agritourism farm in Italy, all the way through her enrollment at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York. But it wasn't until 2023, when she began posting her 'days in the life' as a private chef, and her platform grew exponentially. 'That was some of my highest performing content on social media, of just the wild things I was making, all of the courses, and how I was pulling it off narrowly,' she says. Now, with nearly a million followers across both platforms and more than 11,000 followers on Substack, DeVita has expanded her reach. She continues to cook for clients, share weekly recipes through her newsletter, and post daily videos online — while still finding time to bring her friends and family together over food. As a self-proclaimed control freak with a Virgo mentality, DeVita loves to put her touch on every portion of the evening. This means her apartment is typically the home base for gatherings. In March, she hosted her 12 cousins and their partners in honor of using her grandma's beloved sauce pot for the first time. 'We're just now undergoing this switch of the family gatherings,' she says. 'It's almost turning over to the new generation, we're able to host ourselves now.' Tonight's dinner though isn't a big affair, it's just a casual hang with her sister and cousin. So naturally, she decides on a snackable, mix-and-match spread — fresh baguettes from L'Appartement 4F, a tomato and white bean dip, the sausage ring from Paisanos dressed up with mustard and a giardiniera salsa — served alongside bottles of Sparkling Natural Mineral Water. Whether she's cooking a 20-person private dinner or at home with her fiance, DeVita's approach to the menu is the same: She lets the ingredients do the heavy lifting. To find the highest-quality products, she never buys groceries online or orders delivery, even though it saves time. She's a people-person and these ingredient-sourcing days are the best part of her job. 'Being a private chef is isolating in a lot of ways because you don't have any other colleagues,' DeVita says. 'Connecting with the butcher behind the counter in the middle of my workday, picking up groceries, or whatever it might be, those are my colleagues in a way.' These interactions aren't transactional — she relies on the vendors' expertise to spark inspiration for her meals. 'People are always curious about how I'm using ingredients and share how they've used them in the past,' she says. For tonight's dinner, the butcher at Paisanos recommended parboiling the sausage, before finishing it off in the broiler to get a nice, grill-like char without setting off the smoke alarm. Sometimes, these relationships can lead to exclusive perks. Today, for example, L'Appartement 4F set aside those aforementioned baguettes for DeVita, just in case they sold out. When DeVita returns home from running errands, she's back in her element, moving gracefully around her European country-style kitchen. She arranges a simple charcuterie platter with Piave vecchio, mortadella, and Castelvetrano olives on a vintage hand-painted plate she found in Puglia, Italy. Even as a private chef, she doesn't feel pressured to show off her skills and overwhelm her guests with an over-the-top spread. 'The whole point is bringing people together and connecting with friends, and it doesn't need to be this complicated thing,' she says. It's her attention to detail that makes these dinners feel special, not a lengthy prep list. 'There are certain things that get forgotten about when you're hosting in your own apartment that are just assumed when you go out to dinner,' she says. As she sets the table, DeVita uses linen napkins from Six Bells instead of paper and places in a wine cooler for easy refills. 'It's not crazy for [a restaurant] to put a bottle of chilled on the table and pour it for you,' she says. 'It's about finding those little ways to elevate the meal in a way that's kind of obvious, but you forget when it comes to being in your own home.' Her cousin Giulia is a few minutes late, but DeVita enjoys a 10 to 15 minute grace period to put the finishing touches on the table. When it comes to those big-event dinners, she also appreciates the occasional bouquet of flowers, bottle of wine, or even for those who don't drink (though, she doesn't expect gifts from tonight's guests who visit often). As she pulls the sausage out of the oven, her sister and cousin sit around the table, and they dive into the spread. DeVita smears mustard on the baguette, adds a piece of sausage, and sprinkles the giardiniera on top. 'Simple but so yummy,' she says. 'That's honestly what people want when they come over, a delicious meal.' Photo Credits: Photographer: Meghan Marin Art Director: Sarah Rose Greenberg Photo Assistant: Serena Nappa Hair and Makeup Artist: Lauren Bridges Food Stylist: Fatima Khamise Production Designer: Katie Quinlisk Art Assistant: Madison Bartlett Producer: Andreana Kraft
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Coasties Braved Withering German Fire to Put Troops Ashore on D-Day
Coast Guard Gunner's Mate Frank DeVita crawled over the bodies of the dead who lay in the blood and puke covering the deck of the Higgins boat on Omaha Beach to save the landing craft during the first wave of D-Day landings on June 6, 1944. DeVita's main job as part of the landing craft's crew was to raise and lower the front ramp on orders of the coxswain, or boat driver, to allow more than 30 troops from the 1st Infantry Division, the "Big Red One," to storm ashore, but the German MG-42 machine guns took their toll. In oral histories and in a Coast Guard interview, DeVita, of Brooklyn, New York, spoke of the numbing fear that the boat crews had to overcome on D-Day, the beginning of the Allied invasion of France that became a turning point in the war against Nazi Germany during World War II. Friday marks the 81st anniversary of the massive military operation. Read Next: Air Force Special Operations Command Names New Enlisted Leader as Predecessor Faces Investigation As soon as DeVita lowered the boat's ramp, "about 15 or 16 GIs died immediately" from the German fire, he said. "The first guy who got hit -- ripped his stomach open. Another guy two feet away was hit in the head, took his helmet off." Now, the coxswain was screaming at him to get the ramp back up to allow the boat to back off the beach, but the ramp was stuck. "I didn't know what to do. The ramp was in the front and I'm in the back. I can't see it from where I am because of the dead and wounded in front of me. I had to crawl over them to get to the ramp. And while I'm crawling, I'm crying. I'm saying to these kids, 'I'm sorry, please excuse me. I have no other alternative,'" DeVita said. "When I got closer, I realized that two dead soldiers were on the ramp, holding it down. They never got off the boat. I tried lifting them up, but I couldn't. I weighed 125 pounds. Another guy came to help and, inch by inch, we pulled them into the boat," he said. DeVita then tried to comfort one of the wounded. "He was crying 'help me, help me,' but I had nothing in my kit to help him." He started reciting the Lord's Prayer but never finished. "I knew he was gonna die," DeVita said. "I wanted him to know that he was not alone, and I reached down and touched his hand. And he died; he died." His boat returned to the beach 14 more times to deliver troops and supplies after the initial landing in the first-wave assault. DeVita also noted that on trips to the attack transport USS Samuel Chase his boat had brought back a total of 308 bodies of U.S. troops who had been killed in action. The role played by DeVita and the other Coast Guard personnel who crewed the Higgins boats was critical to the success of the D-Day landings in gaining a foothold in France to begin the liberation of Europe from the Nazis. Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, the supreme Allied commander, often paid tribute to the Coasties and the Higgins boats by referring to Andrew Jackson Higgins, the New Orleans industrialist and designer of the Higgins boats, as "the man who won the war for us." The expertise of the Higgins crews was such that many of the Coasties, including DeVita, were transferred to the Pacific after the Nazi surrender and participated in the landings on Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Coast Guardsmen manned 99 warships and large landing vessels for Operation Neptune, the naval component of D-Day involving more than 6,900 ships and landing craft, including about 1,500 Higgins boats, according to a piece on the Coast Guard website titled "The U.S. Coast Guard at Normandy." A total of 18 Coast Guardsmen were killed and 38 were wounded in the course of the fighting on D-Day. The flat-bottom Higgins boat itself was slightly more than 36 feet in length with a beam of just under 11 feet and was powered by a 225-horsepower Gray Marine 6-71 diesel engine at a maximum speed of 12 knots in calm seas. The sides and rear of the landing craft were made of plywood and offered little protection against enemy fire. The vulnerability of the Higgins boats was not lost on Harold Schultze, who was the coxswain of a boat operating off the transport USS Bayfield on D-Day with the task of putting troops ashore on Utah Beach. "The German fire was extremely heavy," Schultze told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal in 2019. "As the driver, I would try to get to the beach and the bullets were hitting all around you, the ramp and everywhere. It was hard watching those young men drop off into the water. They had over 50-pound backpacks and were trying to hold their rifles over their heads all while being under heavy fire. Often, they couldn't get their footing, and many of them drowned before even getting to the beach. These were some of the bravest men I have ever seen." The hardest part of his repeated trips to the beach on D-Day, Schultze said, was removing "the dog tags off of the dead soldiers floating in the water. That got to me. You eventually became numb to the sights and had to carry on, but you could never forget." Related: What Ike Remembered When Returning to the Beaches of Normandy 20 Years After D-Day
Press and Journal
21-04-2025
- Sport
- Press and Journal
Ross County cult hero: Raffaele De Vita on enduring emotions of watching 2016 League Cup glory from bench
Raffaele De Vita was on the bench for Ross County's first ever national trophy triumph in 2016 – but the Italian entertainer bears no grudges. The silky winger admits his form just dipped at the wrong time, and manager Jim McIntyre named his as a substitute as County defeated Hibs 2-1 at Hampden – with Alex Schalke's last-gasp goal being the history-maker. Michael Gardyne had fired the Staggies in front before Liam Fontaine drew Hibs level just before the break in the 2016 League Cup showpiece. With the final heading for extra-time, Schalke popped up with the famous, unforgettable, winner. It was a remarkable victory for County, who beat Celtic 3-1 in the semi-final – another tie De Vita watched from the dugout as an unused substitute. De Vita – who scored five goals in 39 appearances for County after signing in January 2015 – was thrilled for his team-mates and supporters as the club, but said: 'The League Cup win gives me mixed emotions. 'Honestly, I was buzzing for the town and the supporters because I can't even imagine what it means to such a small community to win a national trophy. 'Not anyone in the planet deserved it more than them – they way the fans follow their team up and down the country, whether in the Championship or Premiership, to go on and win the League Cup is an incredible story. 'But not being involved in the final left a bitter taste. If you are a player, you want to be part of that. 'I can never have the same emotions as Alex Schalk, who scored the winner in the last minute. 'But, overall, for the club I was delighted. Ross County were not a team to always get the headlines. 'To play at Hampden where it was almost all green and white from the Hibs fans, with County having just a little section of supporters, it really was like David against Goliath. It was unbelievable. 'I was happy for the fans and for the players. Although that season was difficult for me, the group of players the manager put together were brilliant. 'There were just genuine, honest guys that wanted to do well. There were no big heads or primadonnas in the team. They really, really deserved it.' De Vita feels no ill-will towards McIntyre for not selecting him, adding: 'I have no hard feelings against the manager. I didn't feel I was in good form at all during that period. '(And) for the (semi-final win) against Celtic, and the final against Hibs, the way the manager set up the team meant the wingers had to pay the price. 'And, if I remember right, Michael Gardyne had to play wing-back. 'He's a little machine. He just runs everywhere for 90 minutes – it's maybe something that I couldn't do. It's a really difficult role to adapt in a wing-back position. 'But the club and the players were amazing to go on and win the trophy against Hibs. 'Those were incredible memories.' Ex-Blackburn youth player De Vita, who arrived in England as a teenager from Rome in 2004, joined County after leaving Cheltenham in 2015. De Vita, who also played for Bradford City and Livingston, revealed how he could quite easily have become a player for Ross County's relegation rivals St Mirren that winter. The Buddies – who ended up bottom of the league come May – ran the rule over the Italian, but indecision and a lucky link led him to Dingwall instead. He said: 'My move to Ross County almost happened by accident and that actually happens quite often in football. 'I was on trial with St Mirren, whose manager Gary Teale wanted to have a look at me, as well as several other players. 'Like County, they were struggling a bit at that time, but they were taking their time and changing a lot of players, assessing the options. 'But I was in a rush to sign somewhere and start playing football again. I was getting frustrated that St Mirren were taking their time. 'At that time, my agent had another player, Marcus Fraser, who was at Ross County, having just signed from Celtic. 'My agent then spoke to Jim McIntyre, who agreed to have a look at me. We drove up from Glasgow. 'I didn't really think I did particularly well in those two or three training sessions, but Jim McIntyre told me he wanted to sign me. 'I didn't think twice. I didn't look at figures or anything – I just wanted to sign. 'There was a good feeling about the changing room and the place. It was all very quick and not planned at all, but worked out well in the end.' Red tape ruled De Vita out from making his debut away to Aberdeen. Installed in the side following a Pittodrie rout, County kicked away from the danger-zone to finish ninth that season. He said: 'Signing for Ross County was, for me, a brilliant experience, yet I never thought it would run out the way it did. 'When I signed, it was a difficult time, I think, for the team at that particular time. 'The club was healthy, and in the SPL, so everyone obviously was very enthusiastic about it. But the league position wasn't good. 'Everyone thought we were destined to get relegated to the Championship. 'I was coming to County from a club in England where things weren't going well, so I needed a break. 'Ross County proved to be perfect for me. I joined at the end of January in the last few days of the transfer window. 'The team were just about to play Aberdeen. And, in football, there are moments where if things go one way, it can change everything. 'And the lucky thing for me was actually that that weekend, I wasn't registered in time to play in the team, but the manager kept me on the bench because he didn't know whether the papers were through. 'We ended up getting thumped 4-0 by a really good Aberdeen side and it meant the following week the manager made five or six changes for the match against Motherwell. 'Had I played against Aberdeen, I could have been one of those who lost their place in the team.' De Vita scored on his Staggies bow, saying: 'It meant I made my debut against Motherwell, and I scored in a 3-2 win. It was the perfect debut for me and the team. 'From that point, the manager found that his team was really settled for the next few months. There were maybe one or two changes here and there, but we were a team he was happy with and could rely on. 'We went on that long run where we didn't lose many games. And, eventually, we stayed up with a few games to go, which was unbelievable. 'Ross County are a club that I really admire for the way they do things. And they manage to always keep their heads and see the positive aspects of a season, even when things are not going well. They are very different in that respect.' The pros far outweighed the cons for De Vita in the north of Scotland and, more than a decade on, he retains such fond memories of a club with a 'family feeling'. He said: 'I loved it, honestly. Not just, obviously, when things are going well, it's easy to say that you love your time at a place, but everything about it. 'I think I only realise now how lucky I am to not only play for Ross County, but also to have lived in the Highlands – it's a place where maybe people from the Highlands don't realise how much people from different countries are fascinated by the area. 'It's a difficult place to live for a long time because of the weather – I'm not used to it. 'However, as a place to visit and spent time for a few weeks there are not many better places in the world. 'On top of that, it was so good to play in the SPL at such good stadiums with some great atmospheres. I remain really grateful for that. 'At the time you maybe don't enjoy it as much because there is the pressure to win games and not get relegated. All the games seemed to pass really quickly. 'You don't stop to think about looking back, but being at Ross County was one of the best experiences that football gave me.' De Vita, 37, is still pulling on the boots, playing for fifth-tier Italian club Anagni, an hour from Rome. But he revealed he's developing a new career in the classroom, too. He explained: 'Surprisingly, I still play and it's semi-pro. It is not like it is in Scotland where, in part-time football, you might train twice a week in League One or League Two – here, in Italy, you still train every afternoon at 3pm, so you really only have the morning to do other things, but you still have to life your life as a professional. 'Because I am older now, I started to think about other things and, I don't know how, but I am now teaching English as a second language. 'It's just something that I wanted to do. I wanted to make good use of what the UK gave me. 'It's the language I started with no knowledge of – I could barely ask a question in English and I've kind of managed to learn a new language.' 'I'm kind of still battling with that transition from football to something else. But teaching gives me something else to think about and not be too scared of the future because it's a tough period when you stop playing football and you realise that you don't know anything else. 'We have middle school here between elementary school and high school. We prepare the kids for Cambridge exams, which they need for then high school and university. 'So, it's like extra courses that the school offers to the students. 'English is not like back in the day – you need English for everything. 'I will see whether football coaching also becomes part of my life. I think I would like to give it a go, but at the moment I'm still enjoying playing. 'I'll see how long my legs can keep going – I don't think I've got a lot longer, but I'll try my best.'
