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Cheryl Raeside already had a masters degree in human resources and a lucrative career from California to Florida three years ago when she moved to Azle and experienced a physical as well as mental conversion.
Since the move, Cheryle and her husband Greg have been commuting together to and from Lockheed, where he is employed as an engineer and she coordinates training schedules for thousands of shop workers.
Greg still has a passion for engineering but Cheryle describes being a training coordinator as, “just a job.” “It’s not my passion,” she said. “I’ve always loved to cook.” The ability to create culinary delights from almost anything has been a lifelong quest – possibly even a birthright that appears to have skipped a generation.
“My mom was a self-proclaimed bad cook,” Cheryle said. “But Grandma was a great cook who could pull anything out of the pantry and whip up a great meal.” From her home in Azle, Cheryle has spent the last three years honing her birthright into a fine art. She enrolled in a Pastry Pro 1 course at the Culinary School in Fort Worth, volunteered to help with cooking classes at Central Market. She even started her own limited liability company – Distinctive Dinners by Cheryle – preparing intimate dinner parties for up to 12 guests. But being able to call herself a “master chef” has been an elusive dream – until now. Cheryle recently enrolled in a cooking course at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Dallas, where last month she won first place in the third annual Market Basket Competition. Everyone from Oklahoma to Texas who was enrolled in the culinary program could enter the contest by submitting a short essay explaining why they want to be a chef. Cheryle began her essay by quoting Julia Child. “Find something you’re passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it,” the cooking legend said. Cheryle goes on to talk about being a young girl in the kitchen with “grandmother... a master at turning modest pantry items into the most fabulous dishes,” and expresses a strong desire to share her “zeal and excitement for food” with others. From the many essays that were submitted, Cheryle and nine others advanced to the cooking phase of competition, where she wowed the judges by conjuring up a pan-seared Chicken Breast with Chaucer sauce and Pomme Anna entree in 90 minutes, using only the ingredients from a prepared list. The $2,500 prize will help grease the way as Cheryle Raeside pursues an Associates of Applied Science Degree. So for the next 84 weeks the Raesides will be commuting to the fighter plant separately so that Cheryle can make her way through the late afternoon traffic from Fort Worth to Dallas to fulfill her quest. And an idea that seemed to be just a dream not long ago could turn her lifelong love of cooking into a new career as a master chef. |
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