Chef

Vanessa N. Jaurique, grew up in the central coast of California, in a city called Salinas(Salad Bowl of America).  Being surrounded by fresh  produce, and cooking with her mother daily, since her father worked for a produce company, she never thought she would be working as a Chef.  But being from CA, she was surrounded by so many cultures which came along with so many types of cuisines.  That fusion food is what she loves to cook.  Vanessa is a huge competitor at heart as she played softball her whole life through college.  After attending California State University, Fresno she worked as a Business Development Mgr for a top mortgage bank for a few years.  When economy took its turn for the worse she was laid off and decided to go for her passion, cooking!  Vanessa received her formal training at The Professional Culinary Institute in Campbell, CA in 2007 .

While attending culinary school she went for the school’s student competition team where she became Team Captain and led the team to 3 gold medals.  Vanessa continues to do competitions on her own as a single’s competitor.  Competing keeps her on her toes and up-to-date with trending foods and techniques.  Vanessa also was team support to the USA Culinary Youth Team.  She went to Scotland and the team brought home 3 gold medals and the overall gold! Vanessa started work at a 4 star resort and country club(CordeValle), cooking for athletes and dignitaries before heading to work for Royal Caribbean International to start up their fine dining restaurant(150 central Park), on board their new largest ship in ’09(Oasis of the Seas). 

Vanessa then headed back to Fresno where her parents and brother reside and worked as a Chef Instructor at the Institute of Technology.  Vanessa now resides in Florida working as a Chef Consultant. Vanessa one day hopes to give back to the community and coach women’s softball.  Vanessa’s perspective is to “respect others in the food industry, to study, learn and grow from history and mistakes, give back to others and to make people smile when they taste my food.  Keep cooking because you learn & create everyday that goes by, which brings me so much joy!”