I've grown up with an Italian grandmother constantly in the kitchen so I've always had an influence on cooking, but she never really sat me down and taught me how to cook. My whole life I just always helped with preparing meals, whether it was with her or my mother. This gave me a little insight like that I should add salt for flavor, and olive oil give a good flavor.

It wasn't until getting my job at Trader Joes where I really started to learn about food.

At Trader Joes, the company really want their employees to understand their products. It can be tasting a new product or reading each "top secret" information on the product. Usually, the makes of the product break it down so well you can easily explain it to a customer that's asking the difference between soy sauce or coconut aminos. After doing this for almost four years, I have learned more than I ever thought about ingredients.

Another thing that has helped me in the kitchen is simply following recipes. Getting into the physical act of putting things together to make a meal is the best experience anyone can get.

On top of learning the basic knowledge about different tastes and foods from work and recipes, I have become a lover of watching anything Buzzfeed Tasty.

I would like to put a huge emphasis on the fact that this is the reason I have become so comfortable in a kitchen. After endless amounts of watching how much salt they put into a dish, it has led me to not need the use for measurements. The creativity behind these producers has also led me to understand that I can expand my horizons. Seeing food constantly at work has to lead my mind to move all over the place with what ingredients to add to a new dish.

I'm really thankful that I have had the opportunities in life to learn out to cook and hope I can inspire anyone out there to also get out there and start cooking up your stovetop.