Her Story
About Ariana
Ariana Sallay is a culinary professional with nearly 12 years of experience in kitchens. She owns her own catering business and is relaunching the food program at the local distillery Yidtown in Napa, CA. She previously served as sous chef at Farniente Winery and has worked as a chef at several locations around town. Ariana studied at the Culinary Institute after touring and attending a program in Florence, Italy, where she spent six months before completing her studies. Her expertise lies in traditional French and Italian cuisine, supplemented by stages in Spain, baking and pastry in France, and time in Mexico. She has also taken viticulture classes to enhance food and wine pairings and assists at Duckhorn. Beyond her culinary work, Ariana is a volunteer firefighter with the county and runs the organization for her fire department nonprofits. She attributes her success to personal character, pride in her work, and a commitment to continuous learning.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Ariana
01What do you attribute your success to?
I think it comes to like your character and like what you want to have pride in you know. You have to have something to stand by and something that gets you out of bed and something that you want to be proud of with yourself. Like at the end of the day working hard you know. Some people appreciate it some people don't so you have to really be doing it for yourself and your own like what you wanna go to bed with at night.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
No matter what door closes there's always an open one. Facts are a part of it and it sounds generic but it's very easy to focus on shortcomings or downfalls in the moment but they really are just like a failed dish. It's just a few techniques or you know paying attention to it away from it working. A career opportunity closing opens the door for another one you know. It's just every you have to be I think just the learning take what you can from everywhere you go culinary or people wise like you're just you're trying to build your your own your own thing so you just have to take a little bit of everybody's and shape it to how you want it to look for you.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I think there's a balance between needing to stand your ground and feeling like you're there's instances on where you know it's it's good to take advice and direction at times and I think that sometimes we put this armor and shell up and that there's a time and place you know stand your ground where you need to and then other times it's you have to be malleable as well. You have to be open to learning no matter woman or female like there's no such thing as like you know it all. No matter how how many years you spent cooking 20 40 60 like there will always be something new to learn and just because you've been doing it for however many years doesn't mean that you know it all and I think when people stop learning learning and stop wanting to learn that that's where that you know so just be open to learning.
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