Let us go back to August 2019. Life for me at this time had changed dramatically. I left my former career as a licensed veterinary technician in pursuit of my lifelong dream of working with food. On the same day I quit my last animal nursing job, I applied for college (yet again). My focus was originally to major in Nutrition and Dietetics. I was accepted that week and was able to immediately register for classes! My first week introduced me to the basics of Nutrition with a course entitled “Principles of Cooking”. It was basically a science lab in the kitchen on campus – score! We were shown the basics for the first 2 weeks and then we were finally able to cook our first dishes. Now, being vegan, this posed a bit of a challenge for me, especially since week 3 covered “shellfish” (ick!). However, being the stubborn bootstrapper than I am, I decided to don some gloves and cook up some fish. Crab cakes, no less!

This image is my first official plating of food. I fried the patties, made my own tartar sauce, cut up lemons, pulled parsley, and compulsively added them to the plate. Plating was not a requirement for this course, but I aspired to make my food “beautiful”. Even if I wasn’t going to eat it, I wanted to entice others to do so. This immediately gained attention from the instructor, who decided to embarrass me and showcase my work to the class. Soon after, one of the primary chefs of the department pops in for a random visit and stops at my plate. “Who plated this dish?”, to which I sheepishly replied, “I did, Chef.”

He dons a large smile and proclaims, “Amazing!” This was quickly followed by the greatest gift of any mentor: a high-five. I glowed so much, I beamed. This was a sign to shift my focus from nutrition into culinary arts. I wanted nothing more than to cook and plate, and called up my significant other to let him know of my excitement.

The rest, as they say, is history.