Mina Stone ‘94

Almost 29 years after Mina’s graduation, Atrium School is still near and dear to the Stone family. In fact, Mina and her dad Jim noted that Atrium is on their minds often and that they talk about Atrium a couple of times a week. According to Jim, “Who Mina is today was shaped by her experience at the Atrium – those were six very precious years.”

On September 19, 2022, Atrium hosted Cooking With Mina, a virtual conversation and cooking demonstration highlighting Mina’s storied career as a chef, author, restaurateur, and Atrium alum. Although we didn’t get to smell the aromas from her Super Lemony Olive Oil Cake, nor sample the cake, we experienced Mina’s story about her journey from studying fashion and starting her own small line of dresses to becoming a chef and cooking for artists to help support herself. Along the way, she realized that she was reading more cookbooks than Vogue magazines. She developed her own style of cooking inspired by her Greek heritage, and it was a delight to hear about that transformation and her two cookbooks.

Here is a short excerpt from the evening: 

Can you tell us about your yiayia – your grandmother – and how she influenced your love of food and for the kitchen? 

I was never formally trained as a chef; I learned mostly from watching cooking shows and cooking with my Yiayia. My Yiayia was an amazing cook who taught me how to cook and how to always think about your audience. She put so much love into her cooking and always went the extra mile. She took me to markets and in Greece to learn how to pick out the freshest and best ingredients. She showed her love through her cooking and taught me how to do the same.

You did not necessarily set out to become a chef, you came in through the art world. Tell us about that journey.

At age 24, I had finished art school and was developing my own dress line. I knew I would get lost in a big company, that I needed freedom to create and build my line. But I also needed to support myself so I began cooking for a family. This then led to friends asking me to cater their parties. I took any job that was available while continuing to work on my dress line. I was imagining catering to stores that showed my dresses. I think about this now as a nice innocence of youth. I wasn’t scared.

At some point I was invited to a dinner in New York and was introduced to a woman who was the director of a very famous gallery. I didn’t really know much about the director or the gallery. She asked me to cook dinner for forty people which I initially declined. After thinking about it – I had recipes for four, if I multiplied it by ten I would get to forty – and took the job. The guests loved my simple food, and they supported me and the connection to cooking for artists began.

What was the impetus and story behind authoring your first cookbook?

At this first big dinner, I thought, this is a very interesting crowd. My first marker that I had stumbled upon something big was that Debbie Harry, the lead singer for the band Blondie, was a guest.  I was starstruck. I began to do more catering and so thereafter started cooking for the artist Urs Fisher. Urs had total belief in my cooking and together we took on the adventure of writing my first cookbook Cooking For Artists. I titled the book this because that is what I had been doing over the years – cooking for different artists and recording the recipes.

I view my cookbooks as a journal. A record of what I have been cooking over the years for my friends, family, and in my work as a chef.


What do you feel most grateful for from your time at Atrium? What do you carry with you from here today?

As my dad said, we think about Atrium a lot. I often reflect upon my experience of being funneled into a large public school after Atrium. I was prepared because Atrium gave me the tools which I applied then and still do today to do anything I put my mind to. Atrium taught me how to learn and how to teach myself in any kind of situation. The teachers nurtured my being able to access my own mind. They cultivated a sense for the true meaning and excitement of learning, and why education is so important. This came from the deep relationships we had with the teachers. Real meaningful relationships that were formative and helped me become the person I am today. 

You can read more about Mina Stone ‘94 and her delicious recipes in her books Cooking for Artists and Lemon, Love, & Olive Oil.