Her Story
About Maria
I've been working in the culinary field for nearly 8 years, and I currently serve as the executive chef at a hospital in El Paso, Texas, working for Morrison Healthcare. My passion for cooking started long before culinary school - it was inspired by the women in my family, my grandmother, mom, and aunts, who were always in the kitchen creating amazing dishes without recipes or measurements. In 2013, I enrolled at El Paso Community College where I completed 2 years studying savory cooking and 2 years in pastry. While still a student, I applied to be a cook at one of the hospitals here in El Paso, and they saw my potential and offered to send me to school to become their executive chef. I started from the bottom and worked my way up. In my role, I oversee everything - budget, purchases, revenue, inventory, sales, menus, portions, cashiers, training cooks, scheduling, and so much more. There are only two managers overseeing everything on this account, my director and me. What makes my work special is that we don't just feed sick people - we also feed the hospital staff and do a lot of upscale catering. I'm passionate about both cooking for patients, because I believe food has healing properties when you're recovering from illness, and doing catering, which pushes me out of my comfort zone. What I'm most proud of is the impact I have on my employees. I work with people who don't have any culinary background, and I teach them everything I know without keeping secrets. My thinking is that if they can be successful, it's something less I have to worry about.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Maria
01What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
You have to love what you do. You really have to be able to like what you do in order to enjoy your job. Otherwise, it's going to be miserable working something that you don't enjoy. And then also helping others - when you're already there, I believe in helping others to also accomplish their goals.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Do not listen to those negative comments that emotion doesn't belong in the kitchen, because you put everything in the kitchen. You put your emotions, you put your passion, you put your season, you put your energy on it. So yes, emotions belong in the kitchen. While I was doing my career, I always heard from male chefs that feelings don't belong in the kitchen, that we women are too emotional. But I believe emotions absolutely belong in the kitchen. When you do it, when you make something, you want to evoke a reaction, whether it's delight or comfort. And something I've noticed through these 8 years in this industry is that females have more dedication, more creativity - they are more clean, more organized, compared to male employees. Women are always giving that extra little step more, even if they are a dishwasher, server, or cashier. I'm the chef in the kitchen, but I never make my employees see me like a god. I don't want that kind of energy in my kitchen.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
In my company, there are so many opportunities - they usually have people traveling to open accounts, visit new states and cities, and learn different things. They offer seminars to help you grow as a leader, recipe testing, and menu development for new hospitals. One of my biggest challenges is that because my account is the smallest of the four hospitals here in El Paso, and there are only two managers - my director and me - I have so many responsibilities that I don't have the ability or the time to take advantage of all those new things and invitations to go and travel or learn. I have to be here because people believe that if I leave, everything is going to fall apart. I want to make my people strong, all my employees strong, so that one day if I decide to go and travel to one of those places, they will be okay without me. I would like to go and see how they open new accounts and new hospitals, do all those menus and recipe testing, but because I oversee so many teams, it doesn't give me the chance to go outside my account.
04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
My family values and my work ethic are what keep me going. The morale that my parents gave me keeps me from taking shortcuts that most people sometimes have. I feel that I have to do it right, or not do it at all. This work ethic doesn't let me fall into habits like taking shortcuts - it keeps me focused on doing things the right way.
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