My Culinary Journey

Because I’m pretty laid back and post easy recipes, I often get this question: are you a real chef? Here’s a little more about my background and the road I took to become your kitchen coach!

FROM DESIGNER TO CHEF:
I was working as a fashion designer in New York City. After a stressful day of work, I would come home and unwind by watching The Food Network. One day my sister asked if I wanted to go with her to an open house at a culinary school. I went just for fun, but when I got there, the presentation gripped me and I felt like the speakers were talking directly to me! My sister ended up not attending, but ironically, I did! I left the fashion industry, and enrolled in the French Culinary Institute, located in NYC, and graduated in 2007.

THE SWEET LIFE:
While I attended culinary school at nights, I worked during the day. I got a job as a counter girl, frosting and selling cupcakes at Buttercup Bakeshop in Manhattan. I just wanted to see if this whole food path was for me. 

Eventually, I was promoted to be a night-time production baker on the days I didn’t have school. The graveyard shift was rough and tiring, but it also taught me to be tough and scrappy. Sometimes I’d be alone in the kitchen and had to do everything from washing dishes to hosing the mats out in the alley. You guys, I still have that bandana and treasure it as some kind of medal, that represents where I earned my stripes.

ENTERING THE MEDIA WORLD:
After graduating culinary school, I got a job in the office for the TV cooking show, Lidia’s Italy on PBS, with celebrity chef Lidia Bastianich.  I also worked as an assistant cook and food stylist for Lidia’s live television appearances, book signings, and cookbook shoots.

Through working with Lidia, I got to attend cool social events and meet people like Duff Goldman and Giada De Laurentiis from The Food Network. I learned SO much working behind the scenes in media during my time there. Little did I know that I’d be using these skills working for myself one day.

THE FREELANCE LIFE:
I went on to freelance food styling, where I got to do work for magazines and ads. This was probably the most fun I had in my culinary career because I worked for different chefs and played around with various cooking styles everyday. It was challenging and never boring! I even got to do gigs for people like Rachael Ray. Here I am cooking in her TV show studio kitchen…Yum-O!

And here I am with Rachael Ray after working behind the scenes for her live cooking class & book signing event at Macy’s in NYC. My food styling adventures took me everywhere from Bon Appetit Magazine to the Food Network!

THE BEGINNING OF OUR YOONIVERSE:
During this crazy hustling time, I got married to my art director husband Joe. We moved out of the city to New Jersey.

I transitioned to a steady job at Whole Foods as a Demonstration Chef. In hindsight, it was the training I needed, because it helped me to learn how to teach people how to cook!

Then Joe and I moved to Southern California. I started out doing odd jobs here and there at first. I even had a stint at a diet facility where I cooked healthy meals for celebrities! But then I found my footing when I launched my own catering and cooking class business.

The catering part was successful, but I soon realized that my heart was more into teaching. I ended up focusing my attention on teaching private cooking lessons by traveling house to house, and eventually even hosting them from our home.

BECOMING A YOUTUBER:
Word got around and more people wanted access to my recipes. That’s why Joe and I started this blog in 2010. We eventually made a few cooking videos together because Joe had all the skills to do it, and I always wanted to give it a try. It was fun to be creative together, but we stopped after a while because Joe got too busy at work.

But 3 years later, we launched a successful Kickstarter campaign which enabled us to continue our dream of working together.

We moved to Chicago, where Joe had family, and started producing our online cooking show…we called it “Bits + Pieces.” Check it out on YouTube…we have 5 seasons of our show!

BECOMING YOUR KITCHEN COACH:
Now with almost 150 recipes on this site, an e-cookbook, and The Ultimate Knife Guide for the Home Cook, we are continuing to create more everyday, by focusing more on the basics, proper techniques, and building kitchen confidence.

Life is also a little busier these days ever since I became a mom to our permanent sidekick Lincoln. Joe also has another job working as the media director of our church, so we try to film when we can.

I hope you enjoyed walking down this road with me. It was fun to remember and write about it! Join our Yooniverse by signing up for our newsletter, subscribing to our channel, and following us on our socials. Thanks for reading and we hope you stay hungry for more!