Getting Back to My Blog

It's been a year since I have taken the time to write on this blog, which started before I left for my trip to London, France and Italy last year. I started a different Blog that was mostly a personal journal with no foodie things on it. So, I am resurrecting this Blog and I will continue to write as I imagined a year ago.

July 2009, was the new beginning in my life. I finally left the health care environment and dove in full force into my culinary career. It took me 4 years to finally write my resignation, but I did it and it felt fantastic. I will miss a lot of the people I worked with at the hospital, especially, my employees. I'm glad I have kept a lot of them as friends outside of the hospital. Genuine folks!

This year has been a recuperating year for me. It's taken me two years to get out of my sadness from the passing of my grandmother and surrogate mother within two months of each other (Nov and Dec 2006). They were both my mentors and I miss talking to them on the telephone every day. It's been a big adjustment for me. I have also been recovering from my accident in October 2008, when a teenager hit me with her car as I was crossing the street as a pedestrian. I still have pain from the accident, but nothing like it was when I first got hit. This recovery has been a long recovery. It has also been an eye opener, with regard to needing to focus on what I wanted to do in the next phase of my life (a career). I was in culinary school before my accident and I had to dismiss myself from my courses because the pain from the accident was absolutely unbearable. Sooo....

January 2009, I flew out to New Mexico for a culinary class and became a Personal Chef. I also got my business license in Washington and decided to really think about when I could leave the hospital. I had been warning some of my leadership for a long time that I was going to be leaving some day. One of my management employees that I had spent time for the last 4 years mentoring to take over my job, kept telling me she was not ready for me to leave, so I stayed with her until, she was ready to take over, but in January, I decided I would give her until July 2009, to step up to the plate because I was resigning. My mind was made up and I was going to follow through with my dreams. And so, I met my goal and she got what we had been training her for years for and that was to take over the management position. Everything worked out great and I was relieved to leave behind some great people in good hands, along with some legacies. Hip hip hooray for Nursing!

February rolled around and I got to visit with Judy Witts Francini in Sonoma, CA at Ramekins. I was thrilled to take her class and was ready for my next steps in getting my chef career started.

March was a fun month as Judy came to visit Seattle and I got to help her teach a cooking class at Diane's Market Kitchen. We also got together with our friend Chef Todd Golenski whom we met in Italy.

The fun has not stopped since. Culinary school at Kitchen Academy-Le Cordon Bleu has been amazing therapy and learning lesson for me! I'm definitely in the right path and very happy!

My dream to be a Personal Chef is definitely the right direction to prepare me for my Bed & Breakfast Inn, offering a full menu (lunch and dinner included) along with my cooking school. My next 5 year goal is to continue build my skills, work with the top chefs and restaurants and to break ground for my B&B Inn. I'm already on that path and grateful to some of my foodie friends and celebrity chefs that have already assisted me in directing me in the right direction with the right people. I am very grateful and honored. Thank you!

This years travels have been amazing thus far. I've been travelling mostly in the US and the food has been absolutely delicious:

New Mexico, Napa Valley, Sonoma, New York, Las Vegas, Los Angeles (back home), Victoria, B.C., Sedona, Phoenix, Scottsdale, New Orleans, Orange County (back home) and I still have more trips coming up before the end of year!

Buon Appetito!