Samantha Kincaid
Cadence | Philadelphia
April 2019
Samantha Kincaid grew up on a family farm in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. While studying history, philosophy, and French at Beloit College, Kincaid worked on a professor’s farm, and before starting a semester abroad in France, she WWOOF-ed in the Pyrenees, tended sheep on Mallorca, and later returned to farming on Vancouver Island. Kincaid moved to Oregon after graduation to apprentice at a farm west of Portland in the Willamette Valley. When the harvest season ended, she returned to Madison as food and beverage manager of a community cafe, where she worked closely with farmers and artisans to source ingredients. Her future husband, Rising Stars alum Chef Jon Nodler, worked at a cafe down the street.
Kincaid next landed a position as a baker at Madison Sourdough Company and soon moved on to Tim and Elizabeth Dahl’s Nostrano, working in pastry for two years. In 2013, she and Nodler moved to Philadelphia and joined Ellen Yin and Eli Kulp’s High Street group, where Kincaid became pastry chef of Fork. In 2014, Food & Wine named Kincaid one of five “Best New Pastry Chefs.”
In March 2018, along with Chef Mike Fry, the pair opened Cadence, a celebration of sourcing, Midwestern roots, and cosmopolitan aesthetics.
