While on my journey to fulfilling my mission to revamp the school lunch experience, I was given the honor of being invited to participate in the James Beard Foundation Spring 2021 Chefs Boot Camp for Policy and Change.  The JBF is committed to empower chefs across the country by providing tools for advocacy and leadership through good food.

I joined fellow chef-advocates and completed the Spring 2021 Chefs Boot Camp for Policy and Change. I'm committed to harness my voice as a chef to create progress in my community and a better food world for everyone.

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Learn more 

jamesbeard.org/advocacy

#openforgood

Meet The Chef

From an early age I found that happiness meant feeding people. I’m an immigrant from Venezuela, where my mom owned a restaurant and where I learned I had a passion for food that went beyond just eating. I moved to the US with my family as a teenager, and like most immigrants, I had a dream. I wanted to be a great chef, and I wanted to feed people for a living. 

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My career started out working at various high-end and casual restaurants. And later on I enrolled in the Culinary Arts program at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids Iowa. Shortly after graduation, I started this personal chef service and catering business in Iowa City, a role I quite enjoy and love. The journey in the private sector led me to Missouri as I was recruited to work in the household of a prominent family full time. Upon completion of my contract, I relocated to Columbia Mo and joined the Windsor Street Montessori School as the chef.

While preparing school lunches for students at the Montessori school I realize the vision  for an innovative food program based in sustainability, culture, and food justice, and created an opportunity to develop it, and market it to other schools in the community.  More than a lunch service, the main objective of the program is maximize the potential the lunch plate offers as an educational tool. Starting by showing kids the food cycle in a sustainable kitchen, and how food gets to their plate, from the farms they come from to the stories people share that bring them together. Serving real, scratch-made food always being a priority. Sharing an understanding of the complexities involving origins of food as it relates to people's stories, farming practices, and sourcing, culture, and inclusion, and it’s organic connection with the Montessori philosophy is, in essence, how I aim to serve our students and  the community we live in. Since launching, my lunch program has now expanded beyond Windsor Street Montessori School, to serve other small independent schools in the community. 

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Lastly, my goal as a Chef is to bring people together in harmony. I firmly  believe that sitting around a table, sharing a meal, is the universal way of connecting with people. When we engage in the selection of the food we eat, we become conscious eaters and, before we know it, sitting around a table becomes our favorite time of the day. As a mother, I aim to give my family this gift. As a chef, I aim to give it to your family and the world. One meal at a time.

At Your Service

Tell me a little about your culinary needs so I may begin the creation process