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Before moving to Florida when I was 13, I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where my grandparents owned their own catering business. They owned up to 25 coffee delivery trucks that would travel to construction sites around town to deliver lunch to the workers. I would try to help in the kitchen as much as I could; mixing the giant bowls of chicken salad before portioning them with colorful scoops, watching cold cuts being sliced on the big slicer, tasting the chocolate sauce that was drizzled over the brownie parfait. The business eventually went bankrupt and my mom had to actually hire someone to watch me while she went to work.Once I started high school, I knew that cooking was something I wanted to pursue further, mostly due to my schools culinary academy. Being in this program meant that you were required to help with all caterings (almost always over 100 people) throughout the year, help to prep and cook for the in-house restaurant that mainly catered to the teachers, and cleaned the entire kitchen at the end of each day. Realizing how much I was enjoying this aspect of the food industry, I began dual-enrolling at the local state college that had a hospitality program. There, I learned the culinary fundamentals that will forever be ingrained in my brain. A recent graduate from high school and freshman in college, I was introduced into student team competitions through the American Culinary Federation my first semester. From that point on, I went to school full time to get my Bachelors degree, worked full time at local chain restaurants at first and squeezed in practices whenever I could. Even through the sleepless nights, tourneeing parties, color coded timelines and down right getting on each others nerves, I learned how important it is for our team, and any kitchen brigade, to be on the same page in order to work flawlessly. The memories that I gained over those years are priceless; working with the ACF USA hot food team, meeting and creating relationships with Master Chefs, being on The Food Network's Great Food Truck Race, competing for Student Chef of the Year and reaching the national level and finally getting my Sous Chef certification.