After my 'office-woman' facade of ~3 years, I decided to take some time off, travel, and figure out a way to pursue my passion. Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and various countries in Europe were stops of choice-each offering their own amazing spread. I anticipated every next meal and impatiently waited for my body to digest and become hungry once more, so I could experience the overabundance of feed. Upon return, always loving New York, and not being very satiated with the limited opportunity the city of Baltimore had to offer (where I grew up from the age of 10, after moving from my birthplace of Kiev, Ukraine), I finally got the courage to make the move. For a while, in the big [delicious] apple, I played around and did various odd jobs (fashion assistant, office manager, model, movie extra, etc.); all the while maintaining my culinary passions. As my savings account began to resemble the frozen turkey case at the market on Thanksgiving day, and I considered my options for 'what I want to be when I grow up', food was always on the forefront of my mind (and in my mouth). With a hard nudge (err...bulldoze) from a friend, I did my research of various culinary schools and set forth on my culinary arts degree. Since graduating from the Institute of Culinary Education (I.C.E) I've dived deep into food styling, recipe testing and development, catering, private chef events, maintaining a blog, and more!
