2020 Pesto Championship Bios

David Applegett
David was born in Tiffin, Ohio and went to school
at Kentucky Wesleyan and later, The Ohio State
University College of Optometry. He has two
daughters- Kelsey and Jenna- and has been
married for 37 years to his wife Sandy. He has
practiced optometry since 1992. He competed in
the Columbus Dispatch Spam cooking contest
years ago and ended up as a finalist.

Carmine Catullo
Carmine is a passionate and hardcore foodie
originally from Youngstown, Ohio where he grew up
working at his family’s Italian butcher shop, Catullo
Prime Meats. He is currently in the Culinary
Apprenticeship Program at Columbus State
Community College. In February, Carmine will
begin working as a cook at The Ohio State
University’s Wexner Medical Center. Carmine
enjoys traveling with his wife, Reanna, experiencing different cuisines and
cultures looking for a destination to open their own restaurant. His favorite
dishes to cook (other than pesto, obviously) include Italian baked wings,
pork tenderloin crostini, and his family’s traditional pasta sauce.

Reese Flowers
Reese is an Executive Chef currently working in
the Healthcare industry. He was trained at a
Culinary school in Columbus and has over ten
years of experience. He started his career with
upscale chain eateries, then moved to fine dining
before getting into Healthcare. He has two children
who, next to his wife, are his biggest critics and
supporters. He loves watching shows, such as
Chef’s Line, to learn new and exciting techniques from all over the world.
 Charlotte Hickcox
A lover of all things food and wine, Charlotte is an
avid home cook who loves to entertain and try new
things with her friends and family. As a small
business owner cooking, along with some good
kitchen music, is often how Charlotte ends her day
and it is her favorite way to relieve stress. While
Charlotte is distinctly not Italian, her curiosity for
learning new cuisines leads her to fall in love with food from around the
word, including those from Italy!

Tyler Kendall
Tyler learned to cook by being a picky eater and
watching his grandma. His mother always said if
you don’t like what’s being served, make it yourself,
and that stuck with him. He currently helps run a
supporter’s group for the Columbus Crew and can
often be found cooking hibachi in the parking lot.
He owns and operates a landscaping business and
is looking forward to celebrating his one-year
anniversary with his wife this January.

Liz Martin
Liz Martin has lived in Columbus since 2000,
hailing originally from Cleveland. She comes from
a nice little Italian family on her mom's side, the
Zanonnis and Florios. The Zannonis owned an
Italian grocery in Cleveland for many years. She is
the Development Director for the Arthritis
Foundation by day and has a side gig as a
Columbus Food Adventure Guide helping people
explore the city through food. She is a certified CTA. Liz advocates for
arts accessibility and accessible philanthropy through volunteering with
934 Gallery, Wild Goose Creative (WGC), and Columbus SOUP. She
founded Hot Plate Iron Chef a local chef competition at WGC and
coordinated the event Too Many Cooks at WGC for 4 years. She got
second place in the State Fair Chocolate Chip Cookie competition this
year. She is also in a local cookbook club that meets monthly. In her
spare time, she enjoys spending time with her little Pitbull Cali, going to
local live music shows, traveling, cooking for friends, and experiencing
tastings of all kinds.
 Michael Moscato
Michael’s mother came to the United States in
1949 and met his Italian father. Together they had
five boys and Michael was the fourth. He always
spent time with his mother in the kitchen. She
taught him how to make everything from pastas,
breads and spaghetti and meatball sauces. Pesto
was a fun way to learn flavors, a skill his mother
understood without any professional training.

Taylor Ramsey
Taylor recently earned her bachelor’s degree in
Mechanical Engineering from the University of
Cincinnati. She has a passion for cooking healthy
recipes with real ingredients. She cooks meals for
her family in trade for rent as she saves money to
go to graduate school.

Rob Rehm
Rob grows the vegetables that few do primarily for
restaurants. He knows the history of most
vegetables and can provide a lot of information
about them. When he stopped building restaurants,
he started supplying them.

Spencer Saylor
Hailing from the Italian American mecca that is
Youngstown, Ohio, Spencer Saylor had only been
to Columbus once before deciding to enroll at
Capital University in the fall of 2012. Now, he can’t
imagine ever leaving the city – setting permanent
roots by buying a home in Columbus at the ripe
age of 26. Once he was splitting his life in college
as a full-time college student and touring/recording
musician, and now he is compromising his time between being a full-time
event planner, songwriter and pizzaiolo. Spencer, who at one point was
opening for the likes of artists like John Mayer, Phillip Phillips, MAX,
Aaron Carter, Jon McLaughlin and many others, admits that while he will
always love music passionately, his first love and largest passion is food
and cooking.