Ethan is a native New Yorker, entrepreneur and activist around food systems and social justice. He leads Burlap & Barrel’s sourcing, culinary and advocacy work.

Ethan has worked in kitchens as a line cook and pastry chef in New York and London, and was the Co-founder and Executive Chef of Guerrilla Ice Cream. He left kitchens to become a humanitarian aid worker, got his Master’s degree in International Development and worked with NGOs including the Aga Khan Foundation in Afghanistan, Maries Stopes in Sierra Leone, and Doctors Without Borders on the Syrian/Jordanian border.

He is honored to serve on the Boards of Directors of the Bond Street Theatre, which uses theater to teach conflict resolution and resilience in areas of instability around the world, Restaurant After Hours, addressing the mental health crisis in the restaurant industry, and the student-led racial literacy and justice organization CHOOSE, as well as on the Advisory Board of Fragments Theater, a youth theater company in Palestine. He is also on the Organizing Committee of the Queens International Night Market, and has been an adjunct Chef Instructor at the Institute for Culinary Education in New York City, and adjunct lecturer at the City College of New York and an instructor with the Experiment in International Living’s Leadership Institute.

He holds a dual Bachelor’s Degree in Conflict Studies and Education and Social Change from the City University of New York, and a Master’s Degree in Violence, Conflict and Development from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies.

Frisch briefed National Press Foundation fellows in April 2026: Storytelling Key to Tariff Legal Challenges.