Look Who's New at Chefs' Haven

                "Since high school, I’ve had the dream of going to culinary school and becoming a chef. However, my personal struggle with weight loss led me down a different path. I began developing a new passion for health and nutrition and went on to Virginia Tech to study dietetics. Throughout college, I continued to enjoy cooking and entertaining. My favorite classes were always the ones with cooking labs, and I even taught a cooking lab my senior year. I also spent a summer in college working with an upscale caterer in Sacramento which continued my dream of wanting to go to culinary school. After graduating college with a bachelor’s degree in dietetics, I moved on to do a dietetic internship with Aramark. I worked with their Innovative Dining Solutions after completing my internship, reviewing their recipe database for nutritional validity. However, the entire time I was consulting there, I really wished to be working in their test kitchen.

                When the project was over, I decided it was time to go to culinary school. I attended the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City for 6 months and trained for my culinary diploma at Devi for an additional 2 months. Devi is an upscale Indian restaurant in New York which focuses on modernizing traditional cuisine. I wanted to focus on my true goal.  I wanted to go back to my roots as a registered dietitian and combine my culinary skills to develop healthy recipes. Having to move down to Delaware for marriage, I wasn’t sure what I would find. Luckily, Chef Mark has given me the opportunity to work on dream job by being able to teach healthy cooking classes here. Now I am getting to do what I enjoy most and share it with others. "

Chef Parul Agarwala, RD