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Armando Perez born and raised in San Diego California. Growing

up as an only child with a single mother was not easy as I grew up eating fast food quite too often, due to my mother not driving and having to take the bus to and from work. My mother would be too tired to

make food at the end of the day so she would

give me money to buy myself food after school. A kids dream to get to buy and eat the food you want, but even having the

chance to buy what I wanted I eventually got tired of it and just wanted a nice home cooked

meal. That's when I started to go to the grocery store after school and buy stuff to make myself and my mother food. My mother was shocked to see me do this and made her smile I'm pretty sure she pretended to like some of my dishes as they were my first attempt at them. I loved seeing my mother smile and that's when I realized how much I loved to cook and to see my mother smile because of something I did. I just never realized I could make a career out of this passion as it was at first just a hobby. My mind was set to be a businessman, my schooling decisions had always been focused on business management.

Had my first business experience as a child, working with my dad at a furniture

store. I always loved dealing with customers and solving problems. Believed the

furniture business would be my future but it never seemed to satisfy me. Yes it

was a business but it was boring to me. It wasn't until I started to work in

Sea World San Diego in 2010 that I started to realize I can try and use my love for business and passion for cooking into my career. I saw there was a whole business concept behind it and it involved cooking what else could I possibly ask for? So I did more research and found out there was actual degrees in culinary management so I changed my career path. After attempting to do

a culinary degree at community college I got tired of not being able to get the classes I

needed. But it wasn't until a co worker who saw my passion for cooking and business told me about the Art Institute and the Culinary Management Program. She talked me into attending the school. So I joined

the school to educate myself in something I was super excited

and pumped for. I joined the school in fall 2013 In the culinary Arts

program. After about a year and a half I graduated with highest honors in march

2015. After graduating with my Associates degree in culinary arts I decided to continue my education at the art institute towards my Bachelors of science in culinary management in which I graduated in 2017.