Thomas Andres

Thomas Andres

Thomas Andres has a background in botany, and is presently affiliated with the New York Botanical Garden and at Cornell University on Long Island, New York where he is investigating the taxonomy and origins of squash, pumpkin, and gourds, known collectively as cucurbits. He studies the uses of these plants in primarily Latin American countries for not just their fruits, but also their edible flowers, leaves, and seeds. This has brought him into the culinary world where he first attended the New York Fancy Food Show in the 1990s as a consultant for importers of pumpkin seed oil from Austria. He was not only amazed with the number of cucurbit products at the show this year, many of which won Sofi Awards, but also all the new vegetable products coming on the market from around the world.