Welcome to Les Dames d’Escoffier CHARLESTON
Providing Opportunities for Women
in Culinary and Hospitality Industries
Welcome to Les Dames d’Escoffier CHARLESTON
Providing Opportunities for Women
in Culinary and Hospitality Industries
Our Story
Upcoming Events
Upcoming Events
Upcoming Events
Upcoming Events
Upcoming Events
Pay Your Dues!
Upcoming Events
Become a Member!
Become a Member!
Our Charity Partner
Become a Member!
Our Charity Partner
Our Charity Partner
Our Charity Partner
Scholarships
Our Charity Partner
Our Charity Partner
Dames in the News
Dames in the News
Dames in the News
Members Only
Dames in the News
Dames in the News
donate to the scholarship fund
Your contributions will enable us to support women in the food, beverage and hospitality industry.
Our Board of Directors
Amanee Neirouz, President
Robin Griffith, Vice President
Robin Griffith, Vice President
Operations Manager, Ms. Rose’s Fine Food + Cocktails. It takes humble persistence and an inspired stomach to go from a rural town outside of Cincinnati, Ohio, to an executive chef in culinary hotspot Charleston, S.C. But that’s the story of Amanee Neirouz. She came to Charleston in 2005 and was a butcher at the Sanctuary on Kiawah Island before starting at Relish Restaurant group as a part-time pastry chef in 2008. In the near decade that she has been with the group, she has worked her way up the ranks to serve as both an Executive Chef and Executive Pastry Chef for the restaurant group. In her current role for Ms. Rose’s Fine Food and Cocktails, Amanee serves as Operations Manager and oversees catering functions, manages teams, streamlines operations and handles administrative duties. Some of Amanee’s most prized professional moments include traveling to Cortimellia, Italy, to represent America in the 2014 International Hazelnut Festival and having her smoked chocolate parfait named “Best Frozen Dessert” by Food Network Magazine in 2013. She also participates in many charity events, including Chef's Feast, Feed the Need, Chocolate Affair, etc.
Robin Griffith, Vice President
Robin Griffith, Vice President
Robin Griffith, Vice President
After attending culinary school, Robin started her first catering business in Charleston when she was 22. She spent 4 years living in the British Virgin Islands as a sailing yacht chef, and then managed the marketing and purchasing for a large retail/wholesale food & beverage operation on Tortola. She would later go on to spend more than 13 years on Capitol Hill managing the lives of Senators and Congressman. Locally, Robin worked for the City of Charleston as one of the Mayor’s Special Assistants handling special city projects, hospitality initiatives, diversity and inclusion, as well as updating all the City’s boards and commissions.
Robin has also worked more than 7 years in the hospitality non-profit trade association space. Robin is one of the owners of Mermosa Wines out of Oregon, and actively manages all aspects of the 145-acre working farm in North Carolina she inherited that has been in her family for over 150 years.
What is most important to Robin is her family. Her youngest son has Fragile X Syndrome, and she is actively involved in the local, state, and international special needs communities and can often be found offering support to other special needs parents and caregivers, specifically in the hospitality space.
Robin attended Howard University, and Johnson & Wales University. She currently sits on the Board of Charleston Wine & Food as a Board Advisor. Past local positions include board member of My Sister’s House, SC Business Leadership Network, and member of Jack & Jill of America – Charleston Chapter. She is a past member of the Public Policy Committee of the National Fragile X Foundation.
Amethyst Ganaway, Secretary
Robin Griffith, Vice President
Amethyst Ganaway, Secretary
Amethyst Ganaway is a chef, food writer, recipe developer, and content creator from North Charleston, SC. Her area of expertise is the culture and foodways of the South, African-Americans, and the African diaspora. She was the recipient of the Les Dames d'Escoffier International Legacy Culinary Award for 2020-2021.
Mary Kay Gill, Treasurer
Helen Mitternight, Past President
Amethyst Ganaway, Secretary
Mary Kay Gill has been feeding family, church-goers, neighbors and friends since she could boil water. Truth be told, baking as a teen was her way of avoiding clearing scrub pine off the family home site in Northern Wisconsin. Her early career was as a financial professional for Price Waterhouse and Baxter Healthcare. In 2008, she put her culinary interest on the front burner and earned a Professional Cookery Certificate from Kendall College with the intent of teaching to home chef enthusiasts. She got her start as the Director and culinary instructor for the Thyme in the Kitchen program at Sunset Foods, a family-owned grocery store chain. Until the pandemic shut down most communal events, she was the lead instructor of the Adult Education Cooking program at the Chicago Botanic Garden. In all settings, she learned to work in teams, to be organized, and to continue to learn from and share knowledge with others. These skills have been the recipe for success in finance and the kitchen BUT recipes and cooking are much more fun to than accounting rules.
In this next chapter of her culinary career, Mary Kay is the owner/operator the “Chefs for Seniors” franchise serving seniors in the Hilton Head and Bluffton communities as a private chef. Her primary focus will be improving the lives of seniors through food.
Helen Mitternight, Past President
Helen Mitternight, Past President
Helen Mitternight, Past President
Helen Mitternight is a former AP reporter and current freelancer living in downtown Charleston. She grew up eating food prepared by a country Southern grandma on her dad's side and a Sicilian grandmother on her mother's, and her best memories involve food. Helen's byline has been in Charleston's Post and Courier, Local Palate, Edible Charleston, and Health Links Magazine, among others. And she's a podcaster. Her 30-minute monthly interview podcast for over-40s is called "Keep it Juicy!" and her love of food has led her to start a column and a podcast called, "Hidden F&B," celebrating the hidden heroes in the food and bev scene.