Tell a story about what inspired you to join culinary!

“Culinary”, a word was just like a stranger to me 4 years ago. I never knew about the word culinary before; the simplest word for me regarding food was cooking. I use to love eating different dishes made by my Mother. My mother had a habit of watching cooking channels on television and reading recipe books. This recipe book with colorful pictures of dishes is what that took my attention.

Slowly and steadily I started to mingle out with recipes and started helping out my mother in the kitchen work, just by peeling potatoes, washing utensils, and by standing just behind her to taste the food……., somehow it became my hobby of getting engaged in cooking. Whenever I use to visit any restaurant, I tried remembering the taste of dishes and also thought of the species that must have been used, unfortunately, that time I didn’t even know the name of all the spices. I was about to clear my S.S.C exams, and everyone knew that after clearing our exams we have to decide a field for our career.

Everyone started asking me, what I am up to, but my answer was not yet decided. As my elder sisters had studied in the field of science, I also confidently filled the form in the science stream so that I could have the title of “Science Student”.

As I was not confirmed that should I adapt my hobby into my passion, I continued studying my 11th standard. In the evening after finishing my college work, I started cooking and trying different dishes at home with the help of Mother’s recipe book and YouTube channels. I started giving my best and also enjoyed it, but still was not aware of the word of culinary.

A minor turning point for me was when one of my cousin brothers took admission in Hotel Management College to study culinary as a 1-year course….”OH MY, that is where I felt that my hobby also has a kind of stream, in which I can fulfill my passion and go ahead in my career”. I started getting more involved in it and studied more about cooking, that is something I have done from my heart. Finally, I passed out my H.S.C and at last decided to follow my passion, but my elder sister was not so sure about it, so she helped me out by doing my admission for a three-year course, so I could get some more time to decide and be sure about culinary.

It has been a year since I joined Ramanath Payyade College of Hospitality Management Studies, I started to get to know new friends and faculty. During my visit, I did acquire various recipes and learned different styles of food presentation. All my teachers started helping me out to get closer to my passion. I felt that culinary will be worth to make my future bright. As right now I am studying in my first year, there came in a competition called as “Vegan Chef Competition”, which was about to check the ability of the students, whether a student can be creative or can show their art towards cooking without using any kind of animal products.

There came the turning point of my life where I decided to win this competition and tried my best for which I learned, browsed, searched, and everything I could have done…….at last I won! That moment, when I was receiving my first prize in this stream, my eyes cried with happiness. From that point of time, I started participating in each and every competition held by the college and happily started winning every competition with all my heart.

This is not the end, still studying and have made my aim to achieve it all and make my parents and teachers proud of me.To be very honest, as I am not a celebrity or any kind of successful person yet, but still trying out to write and share my story as a beginner to give a moral.

And the moral of my story is “We don’t need anyone to get inspire from, we are the only one who can inspire and motivate our inner soul to move forward and adapt our hobbies into our passion making our future career bright. It doesn’t mean we don’t need a role model. A role model is someone who positively influence us and help to get us to shape our personality.

Thank you.

Name: Musharat.H. Shaikh

Year of studies: F.Y.B.S.c

Batch: C