Nicolette Manescalchi was raised baking with her mother and cooking traditional Sicilian food with her father and moved to San Francisco almost 10 years ago from working at Wolfgang Puck’s 20.21 Restaurant in Minnesota to work at A16. Not only does she have an English degree from the University of Minnesota, but she also has her culinary degree from the Art Institutes International Minnesota and her sommelier certificate from the International Sommelier Guild. She was so dedicated to learning about Southern Italian food that she even spent her honeymoon in Southern Italy to immerse herself more deeply in the cuisine. She was executive sous chef at A16 Rockridge and helped open it, and one year later took the executive chef position at Le Marais Bakery and opened Le Marais Bistro. She returned to A16 San Francisco as chef de cuisine and became executive chef of both A16 Restaurants in April 2017 along with running their catering department. Nicolette lives in the Outer Richmond in San Francisco with her husband, Nick and 3-year-old son, Llewyn.