Elena Besser is a Brooklyn-based host/producer/videographer/photographer and cook. She most recently worked in the kitchen, training under Michelin-rated chef Missy Robbins, at 3-star New York Times restaurant Lilia New York, Eater's "#2 Best New Restaurant of 2016". Prior to Lilia and graduating culinary school at ICC in SoHo, she started and ran the video department at Spoon University, recently sold to Scripps Network, a food website for young people, where she produced over 60 videos a month with over 100 million monthly video views, developed and hosted video series like Make it Into a Cookie, and worked with companies like Food Network to create programming for their Snapchat Discover page and Food and Wine on the video series The College Try.
Prior to joining Spoon, Elena spent 7-years developing and perfecting her on camera skills. She began at (Website hidden), an entertainment news site with over 3 billion video views, where she covered dozens of red carpets and appeared on 3 national ABC network television specials interviewing celebrities like John Legend, Snoop Dogg, Will-I-Am, Alicia Keys, Keith Urban, Garth Brooks, and many more. Elena also worked as a host at AKOO, reporting on music video and entertainment news to over 150 shopping malls and universities across the nation reaching a Neilson certified 44 million monthly video viewers.
Elena started her entertainment career when she was 3-years-old, working as an actress in Chicago. She studied theatre and film at Northwestern University where she was a show writer and founding board member of Seesaw Theatre, a company that creates theatre for individuals on the Autism spectrum. Her love of entertainment and sensory engagement has taken her to where she is today: food.
Elena now lives in Brooklyn, but she's from downtown Chicago. In her free time, she creates video content and photography for large brands and resturants Refinery29, Lilia Ristorante, and Cleveland Avenue, a VC firm started by the former CEO of McDonalds, Don Thompson. She loves to paint, take photos of food, and host dinner parties.
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