Hi my name is Kristen Tsui,I am 17 years old wondering what would my future be when I graduate from City Tech. People always ask me ” What your future career?” and my reply was always “I don’t know” or ” I’ll find out when I enter college” but the truth is I know what my future career is and it is to become a chef with my own style of cooking and being able to show my passion and skill through every dish I cook. Since I was small I never had much self confidence and I wasn’t able to speak up when I needed to which led me to become a bully’s victim. The feeling of being neglected and being picked on still linger inside me causing me to be in depression. For 5 years I was binge eating over and over because it gave me a moment of happiness which came with consequences.

When I was 9 I weigh less than 100 lbs but I when was 14 I weigh from 150-170lbs and that made me even more depressed because I felt I was so ugly. Since then I had the lowest self esteem and I couldn’t even walk outside without being afraid of people judging me. I always see classmates with their friend all crowded in a table talking about their future and what they want to become when they become an adult, some say they would become doctors and some say they will become fire fighters but for me I couldn’t see a future for myself. I wasn’t smart like my siblings and I had no interest in studying something I know I won’t like so my parent put me in weekends tutoring school to help study to get into those “good” schools to have a brighter future, but I didn’t live up to their expectation. I realize what my parent wanted me to do isn’t what I want, so I spend my last two month of middle school to seek what I want to study and have a career out of it.

Through those times I notice when my grandma was in the kitchen I always see with her a big smile and the food she cooked was always delicious so I went to ask why she always smiled when she in the kitchen cooking and her response was ” When I am in the kitchen cooking I think about the smile you guys have when you eat my food which make me happy.” Her response made me realize how important it was when someone put time and effort to make a dish to make the other person eating it  with a smile and that smile give motivation to continue doing what you enjoy. Then I realize maybe becoming a chef who cooks with their own style to make the consumer happy is what I want to be in the future.

So I attended Food and Finance High school and throughout high school I went on many internships to learn how successful owner run their restaurant and how chef work under pressure. Not only interning in restaurants but Food and Finance High School gave me an opportunity to win scholarship money through a program called C-CAP for high school student who are interested in culinary arts to compete for scholarship money and from that competition I won $9000 cash scholarship which made me feel I finally accomplish something on my own and have proven my parent that culinary art is my passion and I believe becoming a chef can be just as successful as anything in this society.

Here are some of the places I’ve interned at: North End Grill, Crepes & Delices, Kirkland and Ellis, Bank of America, The Golden Dragon Bakery, and last but not least Murray’s Cheese.