How to Spice up Your Life in the Culinary Industry

Hello World! This is Chef Suzy Singh from Season 2 on MasterChef USA.

Starting today I am excited to give you a step-by-step on how to spice up your life in the culinary industry on the Inc. Well!

We will explore the Chicago food-truck scene, collaborations with chefs, how to get yourself on TV and radio, in grocery stores, and much much more!  


To get to where we are now, lets rewind back to the inspiration for this small business that we now term Chef Suzy Singh, LLC. The earliest food memory I have is in the kitchen was with my father bellowing over me in his thick Indian accent saying, "All right, Beta it's time to flip over the eggs." I was only five, and the one distinct memory I had of this moment was the overwhelming spice in the air, hints of cumin, coriander, and freshly cracked black pepper.


My parents came from India and settled in Buffalo Grove. We lived in a two-story house that was only purchased through my mother's consistent corner-cutting. Whether it was to use only a teaspoon of dishwashing detergent to hand-me-down clothes, my mother always found a way to save money so we can have a place of our own. The one aspect that we never skimped on was fresh food, created everyday by both my mother and father. I am the oldest girl in my family, and five it was high time I learned to cook not only for myself, but also for my family. It was at then I first began to play with spice.

I then followed the traditional path in the South Asian community and graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago with a degree in bio-engineering concentrating in neural engineering. I worked in neurosurgery all over the Midwest. Fast-forward through the next six years and then went to culinary school at Le Cordon Bleu in July 2010. I went through eight rounds of auditions with MasterChef and was on the show for season 2 from June through August 2011, landing 4th place.



At this point I had a very unique platform to develop my small business with the exposure on the show. I always talked about the food-truck industry, so I officially started a collaboration with Haute Sausage Food Truck in Chicago in September 2011.

This will be the starting point for the how-to's in starting a small business in the culinary industry, so buckle your seatbelts and sharpen your knives because this is going to be a very cutting edge, fast ride… possibly the ride of your life! But now's your turn to drive!

This week's homework assignment: What is your culinary inspiration? Write down or draw out what got you to where you are today… and look for my video blog to come next week!

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