People always ask me how I made the decision to go to a culinary school and train to become a chef, I simply answer them my grandmother. My grandma on my dad’s side of the family is my biggest influence on making the decision to attend culinary school. She is half Filipino and half Portuguese and all cooking machine. Growing up I never really did see her much, but every time she came to visit us from Hawaii we enjoyed every minute of it. We would spend all day in the kitchen trying out new recipes and her teaching me everything she knew. Now looking back, however, I don’t remember much and wish I had paid better attention. However, because of her love of cooking, I grew to love it as well.

In middle school I had the first chance to start taking an official cooking class and start to extend my knowledge and loved every minute of it, for all three years I was in middle school. Then once in high school I wanted to keep expanding my knowledge so that one day I could become a chef and own my own restaurant. The school I was attending was well known in our area for having one of the best culinary programs available; I jumped in ready to learn.

I was a little freshman though with a bad attitude towards school to begin with and I had a culinary teacher that would no longer put up with my immaturity. She put in me my place fairly fast, and I then had a bad attitude towards cooking and it made me rethink the whole chef dream of mine I had since I was a little kid. My senior year everything changed again though, I was about to go off to college and try and earn my bachelors in chemistry so that one day I would become a famous chemist. Then I meet my mentor, he was the culinary team coach at my school. He said that right away he says that I loved cooking and I had the ability to learn. He, you can say, took me under his wing and raised my spirits towards cooking once again and my love was renewed. He helped me realize I wouldn’t be happy becoming a chemist and helped me grow in just a short period of time.

I then settled on OCCI because it is a really good school for the amount of money, I also knew a few people attending it as well. Now that I’m actually here, I couldn’t be happier. I’ve learned way more than I thought I could in such a short time and being here has helped me mature as well. I believe that the chefs here are amazing people and really care about everything. They’ve all welcomed the students with open arms caring for each one. I’m just glad I never gave up on my dream.