Ok. So I quit an absolutely fabulous job with a software development
company to train to be a chef. Stranger things have happened.
Cooking has always been a part of my life. My adventure began when
my mother gave me my first cooking lesson at the age of 7. I eventually
grew from frying hot dogs (my first culinary masterpiece) to decorating
cakes for church and school functions. Cooking seemed to be such
an honest and exciting expression of creativity. I couldn't
get enough.
Storeroom Operations: Show Me the Money! coming soon...
Advanced Dining: The Ulitmate in Front of the House Service coming soon...
As time passed, I went away to college to pursue a degree in Hospitality.
However, for some strangely explicable reason, I was struck with the compulsion
to save the world. Thinking that I would not be able to do this through
food, I turned to the field of Criminology. Yeah, yeah, where did that
come from? It's a long story for another time. Anyway, even though I was
working to save the world from itself, I still could not stop cooking
and eventually earned the nickname 'Betty Crocker - Crime Stopper'.
After graduating from college I found myself unemployed. Hmmm...desire
to save the world did not market well. So, in between cover letters and
resume rewrites, I decided to record some of my great wisdom (this is
the part where you laugh hilariously) and put it all together in one place.
The result was a cookbook geared towards the domestically impaired. It
made great gifts for my friends and family.
Finally, I got a job - just something to tide me over until I could get
the job I really thought could make a difference. The job was as a loss
prevention officer in a retail chain. Just temporary. The problem was
they kept promoting me. I admit it. Keep promoting me and raise my salary
and I stick around. I'm human. Then I simply burned out on the retail
game and eventually moved on to the job where I was going to make a difference
- I became a Correctional Probation Officer.
Now that you have scraped your jaw off the floor... yes. This five-foot
tall woman was a Probation Officer for over 4 years. Dealing with felony
offenders - Worthless Checks, Grand Theft, Drug Dealing, Murder, etc.
- on a daily basis, I whipped up localized education programs , worked
with offenders to learn basic life skills and anything that I could think
of to help people on my caseload adjust to a socially acceptable lifestyle.
But despite all of my efforts, I became slightly disillusioned with the
human race, but I still kept cooking. It was then that I decided to learn
a new type of cooking - web page development. I taught myself web design
'on the side' and then went to work for an internet startup company which
grew into a substantial software development firm.
After a couple of years in software, I had been promoted from Project
Manager and moved to several positions including Production Manager, Business
Analyst and chief cook and crepe maker (ok - the last title was not exactly
'official'). My clients ranged in location from the continental U.S. to
Western Europe. I really had a blast working with software. But, I couldn't
stop cooking! Finally, it was time to do something about it…
So, I loaded up the truck and moved to Tallahassee. Coming back to the
land of my bachelor's degree, I set out to get an Associate Degree. Somewhat
backward, but in this case, the goal justified the means. After graduating
in the top of my class from Capital Culinary Institute of Keiser College,
I worked in a couple of restaurants in town (Andrew's 228 and Food Glorious
Food) before embarking on my own in July of 2003. It was then that My
Secret Chef!, a personal chef service, was born.
So, here we are. Full circle. I finally get to do what I have wanted to
do all along!
