Even after decades living in the US, Chef Kashia Diaz says she has never lost her deep-rooted love for Trinidad and Tobago and her identity manifests in everything she does.
Currently, Diaz is representing TT in an online cooking competition hosted by chef and TV personality Clara Hall called Favorite Chef.
Now living in Connecticut, Diaz placed third in the quarterfinals of the People’s Choice or voting part of the competition which started on May 20 and ended on July 25. While she lost out on the US$25,000 prize, she is still in the running for Carla’s Pick, to be announced around on August 2. At that time Hall will select a submitted photo of a dish created by one of the quarter-finalist based on the plating presentation.
So she has the chance to win a "foodie trip” to New York City valued at US $7,500.
“I’m nervous but I always say everything happens in its time. And if it's for me, it's for me. And if it's not, it's not my time. Either way it was a great learning experience. I'm all about divine appointments. What will be, will be.”
The 52-year-old Carenage woman entered the competition to try to win some money to rejuvenate her non-profit organisation My City Kitchen. From 2009 to 2017 she taught youths between the ages of six and 17 to be independent in the kitchen. Her mission, she said, was to teach children about food and food products, and instil healthy eating habits from a young age so they could grow into healthy adults.
The idea for My City Kitchen came from her desire to spend quality time with her two sons. At the time, she had recently returned from studying culinary arts in Italy and had greatly missed her children, who were both in primary school at the time. So she decided to teach them how to cook.
“We grew up poor and we learned how to cook at an early age, to be independent. But coming to the US, I realised that was not something that was taught to children because the parents did everything for them. I wanted to make sure that I instilled those positive habits from my youth in my children so I started teaching my kids how to cook.”
[caption id="attachment_1098812" align="alignnone" width="768"] Chef Kashia Diaz displays one of her healthy dishes. -[/caption]
Her sons Brandon and Tyler, now ages 30 and 26 respectively, would sit on their porch and tell their friends about the things they cooked or baked. Soon, many of the neighbourhood children were showing up at her door wanting to learn too and she agreed.
After about three weeks, the parents of those children approached her. They said the children were going home and practising during the week, preparing healthy food for themselves and their families. The parents thanked her saying how much her occupying their children helped them and offered to give her whatever materials she needed to continue the classes.
More and more children kept showing up at her house and they became too many to handle in her kitchen.
A friend told her God was calling her to do something great in the community and she should do the classe
