cooking and food were always big in Rosa Vicioso Gonzalez’s life, but the desire to become a chef hit her by surprise.
An even bigger surprise was getting a financial boost from one of the world’s most famous chefs who lives right here in Connecticut.
“I’ve always had food in my life and being able to feed people has always been a big thing in my life,” she said. “I think food brings people comfort”.
Gonzalez’s mom, who is from the Dominican Republic, always had a five-course meal cooked for Rosa and her two brothers and their friends when they arrived home from school in Hartford, Gonzalez said.
“People knew to come to my house,” for a meal, Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez, 32, who moved here with her family when she was 10 years old, spent summers helping her chef mom in the restaurant where she worked for years.
Gonzalez said she also grew up in a church where they regularly cooked and distributed meals in the community.
But it wouldn’t be until many work years in another field that Gonzalez realized cooking was her “passion.”
