My Experience

BSc. Chemistry - McGill University
AAS Culinary Arts - Kendall College

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My formal studies began as a chemistry major at McGill University in Montreal, only to realize later the power of that connection to the culinary world. As a young adult, I continued to dabble with home cooking which eventually led to starting a small catering business. It grew to a point that I realized I needed formal training to take the business to the next level. I graduated from an accelerated culinary program at Kendall College in 2006 - one of the top schools in Chicago. In addition to speaking French, my chemistry background certainly came in handy when faced with a barrage of technical terminologies. It was challenging, it was exhausting, and it was exactly what I wanted to do!

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Shortly after graduating I started working in food service for a meal assembly company. My husband and I eventually bought into the franchise and opened a retail store in the West Loop neighborhood of Chicago in 2006. While the store closed after the 2008 market crash, I was recruited by the Chicago Food Bank as the managing culinary instructor for their Community Kitchens Program. What a fantastic organization – my team got to train hundreds of students through the high-volume production of over 2,000 meals per day for a childrens’ afterschool hot-meal program.

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In 2012 we moved cross-country to central California to be closer to family, friends, and nature. I was a culinary instructor for the local community college, the executive chef at a retirement community, and a general manager for food production at a local school district. In 2016, we decided to move back to my homeland and ended up in Vancouver. I first took a role as a traveling chef for LaSalle College where I recruited students that were career-bound for the culinary world. Prior to returning to a similar job at another culinary academy, I also worked in specialty food sales for the retail grocery industry.  

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When the pandemic hit all of us in 2020, the culinary academy where I was working had to close. Like so many of us, the downtime allowed me to do some soul searching. That is when I started to plan out what I REALLY wanted to do, and here we are today.