Our Students

Those Who Aspire

She works with delicate efficiency making vanilla crescents, lightly dusted with icing sugar, at her station that is visible to the street through the vaulted windows of The Chefs' House. Vondelia Baird is an aspiring Chef-in-training in the Culinary Management Program at the College.

“Women in my family are good cooks,” she explains, “I'm from Trinidad where, culturally, women take on the function of cooking. I wanted to embrace that talent and make it even better.”

Her internship at The Chefs' House is meeting her expectations of preparing her for the culinary world. She says of her experience here, that she has the opportunity to work and learn at every station - butchery, pastry, the front line. “I am not confined to just one task for a number of years until the executive Chef allows me to move on. Here, I am taught everything.” And she acknowledges the quality of the instruction from Chefs who “know their stuff” and are always on hand to make it easier.

“I love the interactive nature of the restaurant. I get to see the patrons' expressions and they get to see how their food is prepared with on-screen cameras that capture the Chefs at work.”

Vondelia wants to have her own catering company, one that fuses Trinidadian food with Canadian cuisine. “A mix of fine dining and Carnival,” she says.