Finding a Home in the Kitchen

A Story about Caroline Huynh

Caroline stepped into the Future Chefs kitchen as a self-described shy teen. The warm welcome she received helped her to quickly realize that this was a space she wanted to spend more time in.

Born and raised in Dorchester, Caroline’s family roots are in Vietnam. When a close friend saw an email about Future Chefs, she encouraged her to check it out. Baking was Caroline’s specialty, and she hadn’t considered a career in cooking. Once in the kitchen at Future Chefs, she started building relationships with chefs in the industry, and the Future Chefs community, seeding her landscape for a future in cooking. With coaching from our staff, and discussions with family and friends close to her, Caroline determined that she wanted her life to include a career in culinary.

Carefully crafting a plan for after high school, Caroline entered Boston University and is working toward a bachelor's degree in Hospitality Administration. She wants to eventually be able to run a kitchen, and has been preparing for that goal through positions at Barcelona Wine Bar as prep and line cook, at SRV as a line cook, and by managing a team of Future Chefs students in summer jobs as prep cooks. And while the pandemic created a set of career-building challenges, Caroline hasn’t stopped working and staying connected to Future Chefs. This summer, she co-led a team of Future Chefs students in their virtual summer jobs as interns across the organization. Caroline enjoys the mentoring aspect of working while she continues her own growth, telling young people to “Advocate for yourself. I know it is hard, I am also still working on that for myself.” That teaching continues this fall for Caroline in her role as a Teaching Assistant for an intro to culinary course at Boston University.

While Caroline is building a strong resume, she is also perfecting those ever-important essential skills needed to excel in the adult world of work. “I’ve learned to let what you want be known to others. When I was at Barcelona, I told them I wanted to learn as much as possible and work every station so that I could gain the necessary skills needed to excel. I showed them that even though I did not have any experience, I wanted to learn!” Caroline says. Learning how to be quick on her feet, how to fix a problem on the spot, and work under lots of pressure (think weekends in a restaurant!) are now second nature for this up-and-coming leader.

In her 3 years since high school graduation, Caroline has built an impressive foundation for a long and successful career and has a network of professionals to lean on. She’s ready for the next 3-5 years when she hopes to travel to learn about different cuisines, and open a business. Whatever the future holds for Caroline, she’s grateful for finding a place for her passion to flourish. “Future Chefs had a big impact on me in many ways, including building confidence in talking to people and being in a kitchen. After being at Future Chefs, I knew that I wanted to keep cooking.”