In 1992 she and her husband Andrew opened " Meats ‘n More" a specialty meat market, deli and catering business in Grove City, Pennsylvania. In 1997 the market was forced to close when Andrew was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. She continued to cater out of her home based business "Somethin’s Cookin’ until the fall of 2000 when she entered the Pennsylvania Culinary Institute.

While attending PCI she received the 2001 Western Chapter of the Pennsylvania Restaurant Association’s Academic Scholarship. After an externship in Sun Valley, Idaho she returned home and in March 2002 was recognized as valedictorian of her graduating class and was awarded the Pennsylvania Culinary Institute’s Professionalism Award for the Culinary Arts.

She most recently was employed by Aramark where she spent a year working as a chef/production manager in campus dining at Slippery Rock University. In November of 2002, she traveled to Cambridge, Massachusetts, representing Aramark, as a participating chef for the Women Chefs and Restaurateurs’ Annual Conference. In January of 2003 she and her baking team from Slippery Rock University earned second place with her "Pineapple Roasted Shortcake" in the Gold Medal Challenge, where they competed against six other Aramark university accounts.

Presently, she is taking some time off from the food industry to become computer literate (her kids are ahead of her on this, and she is not happy about it). "The Chef Is In" will accomplish this goal and at the same time permit her to share her acquired knowledge, skills and passion for the art of cooking with family and friends who wish to visit her in her new and "out of this world" kitchen.