Creativity, imagination, whimsicality, passion—all these traits were a huge part of who I was as long as I can remember. Where and when did culinary come into the picture though? Well, let me take you back to the day of my 6th birthday party.

My mom decided to make a special meal for my friends that were coming over. We decided on an “under-the-sea” theme. The meal consisted of hotdogs and ramen, but it was what she did and how she transformed those two ingredients that has still left an amazing, lasting impression in my head to this day.

She cut strips three quarters of the way up each of the hot dog links and proceeded to place them in a pot of boiling water. Me—being the curious person I was—decided to investigate. To my amazement, the hot dogs had curled up where the strips had been cut and were in the shapes of what appeared to be tiny octopus.

Then, she added green food coloring to the ramen noodles to act as seaweed. For the presentation, she placed the “octopus hot dog” amidst the sea weed and added goldfish around it all to complete the under-the-sea meal experience.

As a six year old, I was conveyed into the depths of the sea through the transformative power and imagination of the Culinary Arts. Now, you may say that it doesn’t sound like the most appetizing meal, but that is not the point. It was a meal that not only was an experience visually and creatively, but it was also a meal that created a memory in my brain that would last a lifetime! It was then that I guess you could say the spark ignited.

From that point on, any time we were in a hotel or on any kind of trip, I was always the one asking to turn on the cooking channel. I loved watching professional chefs create intricate pieces of artwork that would wow esteemed culinary judging panels. (Some of my favorite shows were that of Masterchef and Chopped)

Watching all those shows—many times on repeat—I just dreamed to become one of those chefs on TV. I longed to be the one creating visually stunning gastronomic artwork; I longed to be the one inspiring others to work hard and make their dreams a reality; I longed to be the one that would able to create lasting memories in people’s lives through my culinary presentations.

One of my favorite places I got to visit was grandmas house, specifically for her amazing food. (The food is always better at any grandma’s house right?!) Throughout my childhood and honestly, my whole life thus far, she became my inspiration for cooking and my culinary hero. She just had this Midas touch in the kitchen that was truly a feat of magic.

During my teenage years, I began to delve into cookbooks, artwork, calligraphy, or just anything involved in the arts. By this time, my passions were becoming very diverse: Culinary, Acting, Performing, Music, Business, and Fashion.

It wasn’t until I was 17, that I had the opportunity to go to Australia for 3 months with my family. Knowing that I was obsessed with cooking and culinary, my parents gave me the summer budget to buy food weekly for the family and make all the meals. Little did I know, that this was going to be in direct correlation to my culinary career taking off.

A week or so into the trip, my parents told me that I had a special family coming at the end of the week, and that I had to figure out a special meal to make for them. Of course, I freaked out because I only had a few days to come up with something elaborate to wow our guests.

To this day, I can still remember the meal. I prepared a marinated sirloin cut of beef, with a grape balsamic gastrique against a creamy Potato medallion croquette with a side of Mediterranean inspired seasonal vegetables and garnish with micro greens.

The family enjoyed the meal so much so, that the mom, who was friends with the Executive Chef of a five star winery in Mildura, AU, had contacted me to set up an interview with the executive chef. This was my chance! Things like this didn’t just happen. I had to do this!

Long story short, I got my first job of my culinary career as an assistant sous chef at the age of 17. I was speechless, honored, on “cloud 9 million”, and all together humbled. I can fervently say that was the cornerstone of my career in culinary.

When I moved back to the states, I was able to get a job as the assistant to the head chef of the college I went too. There was only one other student in the college with the same position I was placed in. Later that year, I received my first embroidered chef coat with my name on it as a gift.

Near the end of my second year of college, I was researching culinary jobs with Disney and saw that there were some openings available. Within 20 minutes of applying for my culinary job at Disney, I received an email back saying that they wanted to schedule an interview with me! I was dumbfounded and couldn’t believe that they had gotten back to me so quickly!

In a nutshell, I got the job and, in fact, received a promotion before I even got to Disney. Speaking of getting to Disney, that’s exactly what happened. I packed up, bought a car and moved to Orlando (technically Kissimmee, FL) where I continued building my culinary career, experience, and repertoire. I was able to train under the direction of award winning chefs and alongside incredibly talented culinary minds.

After two years of being at Disney, I had the opportunity to fly too LA to be a special guest on Gordon Ramsay’s show “The F Word” and was able to sit down and chat face to face with him after! Moments like that can’t be bought or fabricated…they are made out of pure dreams and pursuing your passions.

Shortly after, I decided to move to Los Angeles, CA. Since then, I became a private chef (cooking for royalty, celebrities, and friends) and have been expanding the boundaries of my culinary skills and pushing the limits of what the arts can and will become. Its the mindset of never giving up not only on your dreams but also on yourself. You owe it to you! Sky’s truly the limit.