Bio of Chef Nancy Longo

 Nancy started cooking at the age of seven with her Italian grandmother, who taught all of her family to cook. In 1983 she attended and graduated from Baltimore's International Culinary College. She has since then been involved in the restaurant industry as well as environmental and food health issues.

One of Nancy's first jobs out of Culinary School was a job she is especially proud of. She auditioned and was selected to be a private chef for a terminally ill man who loved food, but was dying of intestinal cancer. In 1985 she went on to become the chef of a restaurant named Something Fishy where she served strictly fish and shellfish. She left Something Fishy in 1987 to return to BICC as a Chef Instructor.

In 1989 she opened Pierpoint with a menu dedicated to Maryland cuisine with a contemporary style. The
restaurant was reviewed and given high accolades only two weeks after opening. The 1990 Zagat guide named her "One of the most accomplished chefs of the region". In 1994 Zagat named Pierpoint "The best restaurant in Fells Point", and gave it an "extraordinary" rating for food. Mimi Sheraton rated Pierpoint three stars in the August 1992 Conde Nast Traveler. Nancy has been the subject of many articles in other food publications. She also was one of the featured chefs on Pierre Franney's Cooking in America show. In 1992 and 1993 she chaired the first successful fundraiser dinner for the Chesapeake Bay. In February 1994, she was the subject of ABC's Prime Time Live show concerning seafood, after testifying before Congress concerning the urgency for safe seafood.

Nancy's other achievements include an ACF bronze medal in the Cold Foods competition in 1986. She was a past board member of BICC. She won Honors with the National Dairy Council for the Best Ice Cream in 1992. In addition in 1992, she won second place in the National Pork Producers Council contest. In 1994, she was one of Restaurants and Institutions nominees for one of the "Best Restaurants in America". She and the restaurant have been given consistent high reviews since Pierpoint opened. In 1995, she was a guest of the James Beard House as well as TV Food Network's Ready, Set, Cook. And recently, she was also named as one of Maryland's 100 most successful Women by Warfield's Business Record.