As Kowalski’s Culinary & Brand Director, Rachael works across the company to help stakeholders make decisions about the best products to be sold at or produced by or for Kowalski’s. For over 14 years, she directed internal and external communications and participated actively in marketing, merchandising, media strategies and branding initiatives for the company. She serves as Art & Content Director for Kowalski's in-house publication, Kowalski's At Home. She is most passionate about her work on Kowalski’s private label line and building the capacity of internal and external stakeholders to use civic governing to achieve common good.

A former private chef, cooking instructor and culinary consultant, Rachael Perron is the author of four cookbooks and also edited Kowalski's 30th Anniversary Cookbook. She loves to write and talk about food almost as much as she loves to cook. Rachael is a recurring guest on Twin Cities television and has been featured numerous times in local and national lifestyle and industry magazines. She is a self-taught culinary professional who grew up in the food business; her professional experience includes work at a restaurant and B&B outside Florence, Italy, where she honed her specialty for updated and simply elegant regional home-kitchen classics that are fresh, flavorful and easy to prepare. Her professionalism, positive energy and passion for all things delicious are infectious.

In the community, Rachael helps small brand owners, particularly in CPG, achieve success in the retail food industry. She shares her expertise in programs offered by 4 Access Partners, Northside Economic Opportunity Network, Naturally Minnesota and the Women’s Business Development Center in St. Paul. She has just completed her second year as a judge for MN Cup, the largest statewide start-up competition in the country.