It was the first time he paid attention to this natural knack for telling stories via food.
“We had to do all of our core academic classes like math, reading, science. And then we had to do cooking and baking and pastry. And it wasn’t any Easy Bake curriculum… It was a very rigorous curriculum. And so, we did competitions, we traveled to universities to learn different techniques, we did catering,” he says. The real turning point, however, was when Ingrid Hoffman, the Colombian-American television personality, chef, and restaurateur, showed up at his class. She was doing a cooking demonstration and needed a
volunteer. His classmates nominated him to get up and cook with her. It was the first time he started paying attention to this natural knack for telling stories via food. Long story short, things took off after. He started a successful YouTube channel called “Son of a Southern Chef,” which became the name of his cookbook many years later. Even though he became more immersed in the culinary world, he was still unsure how to fit into different academic “boxes.” He had so many interests that it was difficult for him to concentrate on one particular thing. It was to the point that he switched majors three times during his time at college. “And I always joke about it—I graduated with a BS (bachelor of science) in individualized studies. Which, you know, BS is BS… but it did come together in some form,” he says. He hung out in the media department. He took journalism courses and attended classes in communications, chemistry, and writing.
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