Food and Beverage Management
Graduated 1986
For Christine Cushing, her love of culinary arts wasn't just a passing fancy.
To follow her lifetime passion for cooking, she pulled out of linguistic studies at the University of Toronto to take George Brown College's Food and Beverage Management course.
Excited about her new classes, Christine was always inquisitive and inventive. For one assignment where the goal was to prepare a pasta dish, she decided to add a touch of cinnamon to the meat sauce. It's a common practice in her home country Greece, meant to give just a hint of sweetness. The instructor detected the flavour immediately and though it wasn't what he asked for, he had to admit it tasted good.
That's what Christine loves about cooking - there's always something new to learn. "The best thing about making food is you create and inspire to create," she says.
Christine used her creativity with the production of Pure by Christine Cushing, a slightly fruity extra virgin olive oil. She's also the host of her new cooking show called Cook With Me on the Food Network and says the Food and Beverage Management program's practical approach to food provided the perfect base for her innovative nature. More than that, the course was the best way for her to establish a career in the culinary world. The people she met were inspiring and the advice was invaluable.
Christine has since enjoyed a string of successes, including working at the Four Seasons hotel, Scaramouche restaurant and King Ranch Health Spa. She started teaching and conducting cooking parties in people's homes, then moved to cooking on television and has published two best-selling cookbooks, with a third on the way.
With the launch of her olive oil and the constant work involved with producing a television show, Christine is very busy. But her voice is alive with passion when she talks about her career and she shows no signs of slowing down.
Christine has a little advice to students at George Brown. "Take as much as you can and make it the best you can." For her, success is about loving what you do and putting all your energy into it - it's truly all about the food.
"It's a simple joy that makes people feel great," she says. "I'm really living my dream."
