“I started as a dishwasher in a sushi place and then quickly scale into the kitchen, falling in love with the craft, fish has always been my favorite type of food. Before getting into the kitchen, I studied journalism, but the kitchen offered me the first opportunity when I arrived in the States and it ended up paying more than being a journalist back in my country. I was really lucky to have started in a restaurant that treated me really well and that allowed me to grow; to the point that now I’m working in various places, but I still keep going back once a week just because of how much loyalty and respect I have from them.

The best thing about all this has been learning to cook and that this work actually teaches you something to take back home; the essential skills of knowing to cook – which to me was something really important because four years ago when I moved here alone, I didn’t know how to cook at all, so it’s helped me in my personal life as well.”