About Us


KeepMilkRaw.org is a non-profit organization founded by Chef Don Splain of Naples, Florida
Phone: (239) 273-1266
Email: keepmilkraw@gmail.com

about Don Splain

Growing up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, a seasonal bounty from Amish and Mennonite farmers surrounded Don Splain each Saturday at the Central Market. This early influence helped shape Splain's devotion to using fresh, seasonal and locally grown organic ingredients in his cooking and later his activism as a consumer educator about the hazards prevalent in modern food processing and petrochemical farming techniques.

After studying nutrition at West Virginia Wesleyan College, Splain received his formal culinary training at the prestigious Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. Splain's education and training at the Culinary Institute of America opened doors for him to work closely with dean and instructor Eve Felder, sous chef at Chez Panisse, the storied California whole cooking restaurant.

Later, Splain worked at Oakland, California-based Oliveto with Paul Bertolli and Michael Tusk, both Chez Panisse alumni. Splain's experience at Oliveto allowed him to cook for Robert Mondavi and furthered his specialized interest in seasonality, meats and charcuterie. Tusk, now owner of Quince in San Francisco, has appeared as a celebrity chef at the exclusive Naples Winter Wine Festival. In Europe, Splain worked closely with the head of the International Olive Council and toured Spain to learn from some of the country's top chefs.

To bring insight and creativity to his cooking, Splain has worked in all facets of food production: as a farmer raising and marketing meat, as a master gardener raising herbs and vegetables, as a meat cutter creating specialty products, and as a forager of wild and specialty items.

Among his culinary colleagues, Splain is known for his versatility and the breadth of his repertoire: He is accomplished at charcuterie, the craft of salting and curing meats, but he is also sought after for his vegetarian cooking. While at the acclaimed J.W. Marriott Grand Lakes in Orlando, Splain developed a vegetarian banquet menu to be used corporate wide.

Splain has been honored to cook for First Lady Hilary Rodham Clinton and the King of Spain, but he brings equal passion to educating Head Start mothers and cardiac rehab patients about proper food preparation and nutrition.

Devoted to teaching people about where their food comes from, Splain is an outspoken critic of today's petrochemical farming and the denigrating techniques used by today's major food processors. At the Culinary Institute of America, Splain served as president of the student chapter of Chef's Collaborative, an organization that promotes local sustainable food sourcing by connecting socially responsible farmers and chefs.

For Splain, all of life is enriched by his reverence for food: growing it, harvesting it, preparing it, sharing it, and recognizing its importance culturally, socially, environmentally, and physically.