Hello, my name is Shaniqua (all my friends call me NiQ, I guess you can too) I am what you would call a domestic diva*. While I enjoy dressing up and being pampered I have a passion for cooking and making my personal space comfortable and stylish. Unlike most diva’s I have no problem getting down and dirty, being domestic. I’m your typical 23 year old woman experiencing the joys and pains of dating, working and growing. I’m also a Christian which makes me different from most but I’ll save that for another post. Here’s the short version of how George Ellis came into fruition.
So rewind 6 years I’m a 17 year old HS senior totally unsure of what I wanted to do with my life, I figured I’d go to college for four years, major in Business Management and become some sort of business woman *blank stare*. I had no idea what type of business I was going to manage at all. So instead I majored in Business administration and figured I’d use that degree in a corporate setting. Fast forward 4 years I’m now 20 years old and I absolutely hate school. I decide this is going to be my last semester here there’s gotta be something better. As the summer and my 21st birthday approach I have a random conversation with a coworker who had recently graduated from culinary school (she has no idea but that convo changed my life!!!) I decide after the summer I have to get on my grind and look for a fulltime job (my mom’s requirement being that I wasn’t in school) and research this culinary thing.
The job came fairly easy but the school situation not so much. I found the perfect school but they didn’t have any type of financial aid only a loan. I was all for it but my mom talked me out of getting a loan for over $25,000 at such a young age so I figured I’d wait a couple mos give it some thought. A few mos later I got a call from the school saying they now had government financial aid, my prayers were answered! NOT apparently I made too much money to be covered fully so they offered me a whoping $3,000 I finally said eff it and filled out an application for the loan, it didn’t go through *sigh* I didn’t give up my culinary dreams, I read books, watch shows and documentaries all the time to better my skills.
Since my friends and family always ask me to prepare food for events I decided to turn it into a business, George Ellis Catering (after my dad who passed). A few people told me I don’t need a culinary degree, I have a God given talent look at Rachael Ray she has no degree, she’s not a chef she is cook who America has fallen in love with. I personally want a degree, I want to be titled chef and not cook but right now it is what it is. For the most part my small business that I run out of my home kitchen does pretty well there are slow months but when business is booming it is BOOMING. I’m happy that I can share my love and passion for food with my customers. My life hasn’t turned out how I expected it to, but I am so happy with the way things are. I know only great things lie ahead of me.
xoxo NiQ
No comments:
Post a Comment