A graduate of Highland High School and a participant in the Ulster BOCES Culinary Arts Program as a junior and senior, Karina Rendon became a pastry chef in the kitchen of Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue Hotel, one of the world’s premier hotels.
Before taking her current position as junior sous chef chocolatier at the hotel’s Café Carmellini, Rendon worked as a pastry chef at Rize, a Korean-French pastry boutique in New York City’s Flatiron District. She also honed her skills at Gabriel Kreuser, a two-Michelin-star restaurant in Manhattan known for its chocolate program. There, she whipped up chocolate confections in the kitchen of the Ulster BOCES Career & Technical Center in Port Ewen, laying the groundwork she later received as a student at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park.
Rendon’s father worked as a chef at Marist College, and she grew up with a bird’s-eye view of the restaurant industry. While in high school, she worked part-time as an assistant to Pat Rosa, owner of Forget Me Not Cupcakes, a gourmet cupcake food truck based in Milton, and took her first steps toward a career path. I took a step.
She said the Ulster BOCES program taught her the basics of cooking while honing her cooking skills. One of her highlights at Ulster BOCES was competing in the National Restaurant Association ProStart Invitational in Texas after placing first in the New York state competition.
Rendon said her education at Ulster BOCES taught her about food and machinery safety, as well as how to take responsibility for her work. She said she didn’t necessarily have the opportunity to learn these things at home under her mother’s supervision.
“At Ulster BOCES, I had the opportunity to make mistakes, learn from them, and grow,” Rendon said in a press release. I remembered. “Our teachers were always guiding us, so we practiced skills like knife cutting, piping, and scaling recipes, and that’s where accountability comes in.”
“We learned about kitchen and culinary terminology, tools, and how to work with different people. Just like in a professional kitchen, it’s scary to go into a jungle-like crazy kitchen, so we learned about the professional start environment. We are ready.”
Rosa recalled the first time she met Rendon and said she knew he would be one of the best. “
“Karina came in wearing an Ulster BOCES chef coat and was very knowledgeable and happy to help. She and I hit it off right away,” Rosa said in the release. “She has helped us decorate cupcakes for events, orders, and even weddings. She has created several beautiful small wedding cakes in addition to several custom cupcakes.
wedding. ”
Rendon rode the cupcake bus with Rosa to events, and won second place in a local radio station’s “Cupcake Wars” contest. After graduating from Ulster BOCES, she continued to work at Roza while attending university.
C.I.A.
“Karina learned so many pastry techniques at Ulster BOCES that her education and hands-on training helped her develop into a professional pastry chef,” Roza said. “She always listened to my ideas and taught me more than I could ever teach her. Karina was always professional and detail-oriented. Ulster BOCES It gave her a great foundation for her future career as a pastry chef.”
Although they were enrolled in the New Visions Health Careers program, Ms Rendon’s sisters Jessica and Daisy also attended Ulster BOCES and worked on a cupcake bus supporting Ms Rendon at special events.
“The training provided by Ulster BOCES has helped instill in Carina and her sisters confidence, leadership and professionalism in the workplace,” Roza added. Rosa added that she had such a positive experience with the Ulster BOCES students that she hired another young professional from the culinary program this year.
Looking to the future, Rendon said she hopes to combine her Mexican background with the French chocolate techniques she has learned. Her goal is to become an executive chef and eventually own her own business and create her own “brand.” Miami is a potential location for her future business endeavors. Miami has a large Latinx community and an up-and-coming food scene, she says.
