Culinary Council

Context

The Macy’s Culinary Council was a national platform uniting world-renowned chefs to elevate Macy’s authority in the kitchen and home categories.

The initiative spanned multi-day productions, live events, retail integration, national campaigns, and post-production systems that had to deliver cohesive storytelling across dozens of assets.

I had to build an ecosystem.

The Challenge

Each production involved:

Multiple celebrity chefs with distinct brands and expectations
Multi-day shoots and live demonstrations
Complex scheduling and talent coordination
Retail integration across in-store and digital
Extensive post-production to unify assets into one cohesive narrative

The operational complexity alone could have fragmented the output. At the same time, we faced a creative challenge.

Many of these chefs had been interviewed hundreds of times. They were consistently asked the same predictable questions.

If we wanted to build real authority and connection, we had to move beyond surface-level culinary storytelling.

My Role

I led creative and brand execution across Macy’s Culinary Council campaigns and productions.

My scope included:

End-to-end phtoshoot production planning across multi-day shoots
Cross-functional coordination with events, merchandising, and marketing teams
Talent alignment and narrative direction
Post-production integration to ensure cohesive storytelling across channels

Clear production architecture allowed the creative to breathe.

The Approach

Production Systems and Governance: Built structured shoot plans, asset maps, and post-production workflows that aligned dozens of moving parts into one cohesive campaign output.

This clarity ensured multi-day productions ran efficiently while maintaining quality and brand consistency.

Talent-Centered Storytelling: Shifted interview strategy from predictable culinary questions to human-centered storytelling.

We explored chefs’ hobbies, personal passions, and unexpected interests, allowing audiences to connect with them as multidimensional individuals rather than category experts alone.

Experiential Integration: Ensured live demonstrations, digital assets, and in-store touchpoints reinforced the same narrative themes, strengthening retail authority across environments.

Authority Through Humanity: Positioned Macy’s not just as a retail destination, but as a cultural platform that understood and celebrated the people behind the craft.

Impact

Delivered cohesive national campaigns across multi-day productions and multiple celebrity partnerships
Elevated brand authority in kitchen and home categories through strategic talent integration
Improved operational efficiency through structured production and post-production systems
Strengthened consumer engagement by humanizing chef partnerships rather than repeating predictable narratives

The complexity of the system enabled the simplicity of the story.