Every person comes to a turning point in their life when they have to decide where they want to go. I was standing at the crossroads during my junior year of high school after I received many brochures about colleges and universities. Picking a major could have been the most difficult decision I had to make on my own. Not wanting to sit in a classroom and write notes for four more years I decided to go after the one thing I knew how to do hands on. Unsure that I even had a passion I chose something that I simply enjoyed.
Johnson and Wales just happened to be the university that concentrates on Pastry without having to be involved with Culinary that still offers a college experience. Once I found the right school I was very impatient. Enrolled in the access program within the month, with my bags packed I flew to Rhode Island to explore a new opportunity.
Interested and somewhat overwhelmed I came to like the tour more and more. Unable to enroll for access, I finished high school and flew up the next year. Finding myself, exploring the “big city”, falling in love, making friends and so much more I really enjoyed myself with the first year here. It wasn’t all glamour with five mice in my dorm room, fights with roommates, long nights doing homework and being homesick but all in all it was definetly a great experience.
This year I am back to finish my Associates and I am glad to be back in school. I found that this is really what I want to do especially working over the summer and I want to concentrate as much as possible. I have six months of labs and then Co-op so I am looking forward to seeing a new part of the country and another great experience.
Growing up in North Dakota I never knew any chefs, nor were chefs anybody famous or respected. I learned most of what I know from my grandmother helping her make everything from cookies and bread to lefsa when I was little. My grandfather cooked on holidays but I never liked meat much.
My father’s parents farmed many acres and it stayed in my father’s blood. With a full time job in the city as an Energy Management Specialist, we always had to help on the farm. I have an older sister and a younger brother, both separated by two years. My mother is a secretary and keeps us all in order. Family is a very important thing and sometimes it is hard to be this far away.
Even so I would like to travel doing seasonal work for a few years before I settle down in a career. Hopefully sooner than later I will be settling down and marry my boyfriend who I am very much in love with. My biggest problem is relaxing and enjoying life for what it is really worth rather than running around from here to there to fit everything in.
BPA 1400 AM
Chef Ricci
Grandma's with my sister rolling cookies
Always the creative one, I loved to spend my time making holiday creations at my parent's house. Special requests started when I was about 10 - everyone loved the cream puffs. I recieved my first cookbook in a blue binder my mom made of copies containing easy-to-follow recipes from her cookbooks.
Baking filled the days and years still at home as I planned to make dessert for every holiday, gifts to family and friends. I started to talk more about it not realizing it is how I would spend the next 10 years of life. In high school I took a home-ec class and hand carved a cantelope as part of a fruit platter. It was then I realized baking was more than cookies and doughnuts. I struggled for the next 3 years to convince my family this is what I wanted to do and that I should fly half way across the country to attend JWU to learn more about it. As I got more into it I realized my Dad's mom Dorothy had decorated wedding cakes for years and years before handing it off to my aunt and now cousin. Passed down from both parents these talents are simply me.
cabbage and halloumi skewers
4 days ago
