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Growing up, my parents always said,
find something you love to do 'cause then work isn't work,
and I have found something I love.
My name is Stephanie Guth,
and I studied Culinary Management and the Italian Arts Program
at George Brown College.
I actually went to the University of Guelph
before I went to George Brown,
and I was taking a hospitality and tourism course.
I was able to take some restaurant and food and wine courses in that program,
and from there I realized that I was a lot more interested in
the back of house than the front of house.
When I decided that I wanted to become a chef,
I knew that George Brown was the school to go to
because their reputation in the city was unmatched.
One of the ways that the college helps students find employment
is they hold career fairs at the school.
I actually got a job working at a high-end hotel in the city
a couple months after starting at the college.
One of the nice things about the class structure at George Brown
is that you're able to work as well as go to school at the same time.
So the entire time that I was going to school
I was able to be working full-time.
One of the chefs that stood out for me was Chef Tomaseli.
He's actually the one that recommended that I look into the Italian program,
and it involved six months of working and living in Italy,
so who wouldn't be interested in that?
The last semester of the Italian program
you get to come back and work at the student-run restaurant
that George Brown runs, which is called The Chef's House.
And there you got to showcase your Italian menu,
do some food and wine pairings, and be involved in every step of service.
I'm currently working as a cook at TOCA by Tom Brodi in The Ritz-Carlton.
The hotel just opened in February,
so we're working in a brand new, state-of-the-art kitchen,
but what was amazing was that I had already seen a lot of that equipment
from working at the Chef's House at the college.
One of the most important pieces of advice I got
from a chef at George Brown was to never burn any bridges.
Toronto is a big city but the restaurant industry is very small,
and there's no six degrees of separation, there's one degree of separation -
everybody knows everybody somehow.
If you've decided that cooking
and the restaurant industry is really for you,
then George Brown is a great launching pad.
From there, the sky's the limit.