Hi my name is Sofia Smiley and I am so excited to be joining the team here at Cooking Skills and Social! I’ve studied and graduated with a degree in Culinary Arts from Kendall College at NIU in Chicago and since then have worked in back of house and front of house management positions within the restaurant industry. During my time in restaurants, I found a love for health and fitness which led me to my next endeavour. For almost the past 3 years, I opened, own and operate my very own meal prep company local to the Bloomingdale area, called Meal Me. At Meal Me, my job is to provide the customer with healthy, individually prepared meals that are good to stay in your fridge for 5-7 days. All you have to do is reheat it in your microwave! My position with Meal Me allows me to dive deep into different cuisines and recipes and then create a way to make them healthier and provide nutrition information and calories per meal. My goal at Cooking Skills and Social is to be able to provide similar delicious, quality recipes that are easy to recreate in your home and hopefully give more insight into the health benefits and accessibility that comes along with cooking for yourself! On top of that, I’ll know I’ve done my job if when leaving my cooking classes you feel more confident exploring new flavours and cooking in your own home, because at the end of the day we are all confident cooks!