Crispy fried chicken, creamy mac and cheese, and homestyle gravy might seem a far cry from the worlds of fitness and rehabilitation—and the irony isn’t lost on Katie Foley ’01, former exercise science major and co-owner of local food truck business Silo, famous in Ithaca for its recipes that blend Southern cooking with a unique ethnic twist.
Foley and partner, chef Jesse Steve, operate Silo—voted Best Food Truck three times by readers of the Ithaca Times. During busy periods, Silo’s owners purchase between 600 and 1,000 pounds of chicken a week—and they once fed 5,000 people in a 24-hour period. Their local supplier follows stringent requirements for raising and handling poultry humanely. In a three-day prep process, Silo workers brine, roast, and soak the chicken in buttermilk before dredging and frying it to create the business’s most popular dish.
As a student, Foley spent a lot of time o" campus, often heading to the Commons to do her homework, and she opted to stay in the area after graduation.
“I got a taste for what the community was like, and I sort of fell in love with it,” the Massachusetts native said. “There was a progressive, out-of-the-box way of viewing things that felt aligned with how I wanted to live my life.”
She credits her time at Ithaca College with providing her a well-rounded education, preparing her professionally, and giving her the opportunity to go in a variety of directions.