Katherine Thompson

At age 12, Katherine Thompson became obsessed with all things culinary after reading Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. So, it comes as no surprise that today Katherine is a renowned pastry chef and restaurant owner with both James Beard and RAMMY nominations under her belt and a signature cake that’s routinely mentioned as one of the best dishes in Washington D.C.

Katherine’s first foray as a chef/owner came in 2008 when she joined her husband Gabe and business partner Joe Campanale to open dell’anima in the West Village. Katherine continued to expand her reach, eventually adding two other restaurants under her purview as executive pastry chef, L’Artusi and L’Apicio, in addition to serving as a culinary advisor to Epicurean Management. She eventually moved home to the Arlington, Virginia, area where she and Gabe opened Thompson Italian.

Her approach to desserts is to create “rustic and homey-tasting dishes.” And, like the rest of the menu, desserts should change with the season. One constant on Katherine’s menu, however, is her famed Olive Oil Cake, a moist and decadent wonder paired with whipped crème fraiche and raisin marmellata.

Katherine has been featured in a host of publications, including Food and Wine, The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. Katherine co-authored the cookbook Downtown Italian  and is featured as one of the chefs in the cookbook Women Chefs of New York by Nadia Arumugam. Katherine appeared on The Martha Stewart Show and Bravo’s Best New Restaurant.

Her current labor of love is the buzzed about Thompson Italian, Gabe and Katherine’s namesake Italian spot in Falls Church that opened to rave reviews from The Washington Post and earned a spot among on the list of best restaurants in the DC area by The Washingtonian and Northern Virginia Magazine.

Lately, when she’s not cooking or figuring out how to run a restaurant during a pandemic, Katherine spends time with her and Gabe’s two children, Luke and Emily.