Upon reflection, Robert is one of those people who makes us feel old because we've known him for so long. Back in 2005, Taylor volunteered to help conduct the first ever New Amsterdam Market, which took place on just one afternoon out of the year. Now, if you're lucky enough to visit New York on a Sunday, you can enjoy the market each week for several seasons. Don't miss this year's launch on Sunday, April 29th. It promises to be an important year in Robert's mission to preserve the old Fulton Fish Market site, so help spread the word and sign onto their mailing list (it's also the best way to hear about delicious market events that you won't want to miss.)

When did you know that you wanted to work in food?

There was no one, single moment when I decided to work with food systems.  Rather, that path emerged over a lifetime of many small events: walking to the "Vini e Oli" with my grandfather in Rome, where he would fill empty glass jugs with white wine that was stored there in barrels; watching my grandmother sort through beans and lentils or cutting onions over a beat-up aluminum saucepan (I don't think she even had a cutting board!); discovering the Greenmarket; watching the steam come out of a compost pile.

Incrementally, these experiences led me to where I am today.  There was similarly no one deciding factor behind my starting New Amsterdam Market, but I do recall one particular revelation:  I had gone to work for just a few days for Neal's Yard Dairy, in London, to get a sense of what it might be like to own a regional cheese shop.  That store is just paces away from Borough Market, and I had just been let off the (very) early morning shift while the market was opening up on a Friday morning.  I felt immediately this was a special place, without knowing precisely why, and I thought we should be able to create something equally as compelling in New York City; and I wanted to be a part of that effort.

How did you get your current good food job?

My visit to London Borough Market was in February 2005.  In October that year I put together the first New Amsterdam Market, under the tiled arches of the New York City Municipal Building, across from City Hall.  I really had no idea how I could pull it off and I remember getting into a panic more than once that summer as I tried to convince people with no idea of who I was or why I was doing this to come to New York for a day.  But eventually about 50 of them said yes, and that marked the beginning of this project. That first market was sponsored by Slow Food USA; I could not have done it without their support, so I'm very grateful.

How did your previous work or life experience prepare you for a good food job?

In one way or another, it seems that all my previous work and experiences prepared me for what I'm doing now, even if I had no idea of this at the time.  In college, I studied the history of urban planning, and as a result spent quite a bit of time in the New York Public Library, learning about cities, and ideas about cities and how they evolve.  This is still the first place I go whenever I consider a new project, because I think it's so important to use history as a foundation; it sets a firm path.  I went to grad school for architecture, which made me never want to be an architect, and yet it also taught me to look and think about buildings and public space.  And then I spent 10 years working as a planner for the New York City Sanitation Department.  Our group was implementing the city's recycling program, and I dealt with organic waste and composting.  This is where I learned to think of systems - natural systems like decomposition and fermentation, and human-made systems like waste collection or water supply or public transportation.  And then I spent some time at Slow Food USA, which of course was much more explicitly about food and food systems.  It's also where I met some great pioneers like Alice Waters, Dan Barber, Michael Pollan, at a time when their thinking was rapidly gaining prominence.  So it was a very formative moment.

My present work was shaped by all of these experiences.  Public markets are an institution deeply rooted in New York's own history.  The old Fulton Fish Market, which we are seeking to preserve and revive as a new market, is a unique and compelling urban space.  Public Markets are hubs of food systems, and New Amsterdam Market embraces a newly forming food system whose proponents respect biodiversity and want everyone to have access to real food.

What was the greatest obstacle you had to overcome in pursuing your Good Food Job dream?

In New York City, and especially on Manhattan Island, it is very challenging to lay any claim to real estate, even if the site is a public site and even if the proposed use is a public use.  Even if the site is the city's oldest public market, and the proposed use is a new public market that incubates new local businesses!  New York's vitality emerges from its cycles of destruction and regeneration, so trying to preserve something never does come easily.  But this same challenge is what makes the effort worth pursuing; any site or place or building that can make it through to the other side is, by definition, iconic, because it survived when everything around it perished.  It becomes a very valuable place, to the life of the city and to its identity.

What can you identify as the greatest opportunities in food right now?

So many interesting new food businesses are getting started these days, and many of them are committed to source their ingredients responsibly, emphasizing regional farms whenever possible.  The higher cost and logistical issues of using these ingredients makes it challenging for these small businesses to grow. So I think it's important for anyone interested in good food to seek out small businesses like this, and perhaps volunteer some time or work part time for modest pay or help in other ways to get them growing.  The more small businesses like this become established, the stronger the resulting food system, and the larger the economy of vocations this will engender.

Are you anxiously awaiting market season? At what local markets do you shop and/or what vendors can you not live without?