\n<\/p>\n
After leaving her corporate job at 29, \u201cI spent all my savings sending myself to culinary school\u201d in New York, working her way from \u201csurviving paycheck to paycheck\u201d to \u201ca place where you are able to execute your vision and hire great talents you can mould and help in their career. It’s been quite rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n
While her own training was old-school \u2013 <\/span>\u201cyou put in 22 hours and destroy yourself early on\u201d \u2013\u00a0<\/span>\u201cI feel like the industry is evolving towards a more sustainable path, and I embrace that,\u201d she said. For instance, within her largely female kitchen team, those who have young children are allowed flexible working arrangements so they don\u2019t have to sacrifice their talents in favour of childrearing.<\/p>\n What excites her about Aro is the menu\u2019s infinite permutations.<\/p>\n \u201cYou could have the same menu for 10 years and just have different elaborations of the same ingredient in different ways. You could dive deep into one ingredient if you wanted to. Or, you could explore more ingredients and bring those to the table,\u201d she said. \u201cKeeping it ingredients-focused gives us flexibility to evolve.\u201d<\/p>\n And, \u201cwhen I think about future collaborations, for example, I’m not thinking about collaborations with chefs per se. I’m thinking about bringing a producer in. We do one menu where it’s just that product, and they can talk to guests about it. This is how I would see the restaurant progressing.<\/p>\n \u201cI’m excited because the future holds so many possibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n