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My love for food began as a child. I've been cooking since the young age of eight with my grandmother and
learning family recipes in New York.
I remember my great-grandfather, a coffee bean
farmer, and how he influenced my views for the cultivation of food. I learned the importance of maintaining the integrity of food throughout the supply
chain side-by-side with my great-grandfather while witnessing the
meticulous passion he possessed for his craft. His lesson to me was the
process of producing the best coffee, could only be achieved with the
best coffee beans in their purest form.
I coupled my
passion for food with an entrepreneurial spirit at a young age. For my
16th birthday, my parents paid for me to take a baking course. I
turned my new found knowledge of confections and started selling cakes
and cookies in the neighborhood and to my father's co-workers. Demand
picked up and I was able to earn a little pocket money for myself.
To
fund another venture I asked my grandmother in Puerto Rico for a $50
loan to make my first batch of “mavi†([mah-vee] a fermented drink
made with sugar and the bark of a tree) to sell in front of a
supermarket. I was able to double my investment and pay back my
grandmother the same day.
At the age of 18,
I was working for well-known chefs in the areas of French,
Italian, and Japanese cuisine. This afforded the opportunity to
experience new flavors from around the world that I would
not had the pleasure of enjoying. This helped to develop my palate and
created a desire to experiment with different flavors in a way that I
never had before.
Throughout
the years, I have cooked in numerous kitchens of friends and
family sharing my passion for food with those that I love. This
lifelong passion was a catalyst in my decision to pursue an enhanced
understanding for the culinary field. While in Japan, I had the
privilege to learn authentic Japanese cuisine from local Japanese chefs
and this further ignited my love for food.
With a new
invigoration for the culinary world, I decided to heed the words
of family and friends over many years and start her own culinary
business, Epicurean Element. I am a huge fan of food having bold flavors, inspired by cuisines from around
the world and that are as sustainable as possible. I believe that
keeping the integrity of food is paramount and your senses should take
you on a journey to the origins of the ingredients that are in the
dish.
