Credit: Skirt Magazine
Once Upon a Time…
I was a pretty average, happy-go-lucky California girl. I grew up in Walnut Creek, surrounded by family and friends. Rode my bike to school, went swimming in the summers, and occasionally indulged in retail therapy.
I moved down south to go to college at Claremont McKenna and majored in Econ/Accounting (with a minor in Spanish). I was lucky to get a job right out of school as an auditor with Deloitte, and I spent a few years counting beans for them. (Well, okay I didn’t exactly count beans, but this one time I did literally count coins for a collector.)
It was a pretty great life…secure job, nice apartment in West LA, amazing restaurants, great shopping…
…Except for the Food Thing…
Most of my life, I’ve been obsessed with food. I pore over cookbooks and recipes the way teenage boys look at girlie magazines. In school, when I wasn’t studying, shopping or hanging out with my girlfriends, I was figuring out how to make chocolate ganache and or how to swirl raspberry sauce in pretty designs with a squeeze bottle. When I gave a speech at high school graduation, I talked not about growing up or discovering opportunities…I talked about artichokes.
I can tell you exactly what I ate for my birthday three years ago. And if you were there, I can probably tell you exactly what you ate too.
So culinary school would’ve been a no-brainer, but it took me a couple of years of working in the corporate world to get up the courage (and funds) to go.
And Now…
I’m a completely atypical, happy-go-lucky Kentucky gal! I just graduated culinary school in May 2008, trading my high heels in for Dansko chef clogs and my ledgers for a set of knives.
Life since I started culinary school has been amazing…
I placed as a first runner-up in my first national cooking competition, worked the famous Kentucky Derby train, and served athletes at the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing.
Currently, I’m working in the kitchen at the Holly Hill Inn, and I also bake and deliver sweets for Wine + Market, a local wineshop, deli, and gourmet grocer. I’ve also been known to cater small parties every now and then. My accounting skills seem to come in handy too - my bosses just love having me around when we take inventory!
As for the Future…
Who knows? I’m still entering cooking competitions, shopping (mostly in the grocery aisles and farmers markets instead of department stores and boutiques these days), and waiting for the day when the Food Network knocks on my door and puts me on TV!
