Rendon’s Journey to the Top of the Culinary Scene

Ulster BOCES means different things to different people. For Karina Rendon, a Highland Central School District graduate who attended the Ulster BOCES Culinary Arts program as a junior and senior, Ulster BOCES was the base ingredient in her recipe for a successful career as a pastry chef in the esteemed kitchen of one of the leading hotels in the world, the Fifth Avenue Hotel in Manhattan.

Prior to her current role as a Chocolatier Junior Sous Chef at the hotel’s Café Carmellini, Karina worked as a pastry chef at Lysée, a Korean-French pastry boutique in New York City’s Flatiron District. She also honed her skills at Gabriel Kreuther, a two Michelin star Manhattan-based eatery renowned for its chocolate program. Here Karina built upon the strong foundation she received whipping up chocolate confections in the kitchens at the Ulster BOCES Career & Technical Center and then as a student at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park.

Karina’s heart has always been in the kitchen–which is where her family can often be found. She has fond memories of gravitating to her aunt’s side and watching her bake traditional Tres Leches cakes for family gatherings. During family visits to Oaxaca, Mexico—which she deems a “culinary hotspot”—Karina diligently wrote down recipes as her relatives transformed daily harvests into beautiful meals.

Her father works as a chef at Marist College, so she also grew up with a birds-eye view into the food service industry. She took her own first steps on the employment path while in high school by working part-time as an assistant to Pat Roza, owner of Forget Me Not Cupcakes, a gourmet cupcake food truck based out of Milton, NY.

The Ulster BOCES program, she said, taught her the fundamentals of cooking while sharpening her culinary skills. One of the highlights of her time at Ulster BOCES was when she competed in the National Restaurant Association’s ProStart invitational in Texas, after taking first place in the New York State competition.

Karina said the education she received at Ulster BOCES taught her about food and machine safety, as well as how to be accountable for her own work–things she said she didn’t necessarily have the opportunity to learn at home with mom supervising.

“At Ulster BOCES, we had opportunities to make mistakes and learn and grow from them,” Karina recalled. “Our teachers stayed on top of us, and so we practiced our skills like knife-cutting, piping, and scaling recipes, and that’s where the accountability really came in. We learned kitchen and culinary vernacular, the tools, and how to work with different people. It prepared me for the ProStart environment because it is scary to go into the craziness of a kitchen, where it’s like a jungle–just like a professional kitchen.”

Roza recalled the first day she met Karina, and said she knew she would be one of the best. “Karina came in her Ulster BOCES chef coat, and was so knowledgeable and willing to help. She and I just clicked right away,” said Roza. “She helped me decorate cupcakes for events, orders, and even weddings. She created some beautiful small wedding cakes in addition to cupcakes ordered for several weddings.” Karina also traveled to events with Roza on the cupcake bus and excelled in a local radio station’s “Cupcake Wars” competition, coming in second place (though Roza is convinced that her former employee deserved first place honors).

After graduating from Ulster BOCES, she continued to work for Roza while a college student attending the CIA. “Karina learned so many pastry techniques at Ulster BOCES, and that education and hands-on training helped create a professional pastry chef,” noted Roza.

“She was always willing to listen to my ideas and taught me so much more than I taught her. Karina was always professional and attentive to details. Ulster BOCES gave her a wonderful foundation for her future career as a pastry chef.”

Although they were enrolled in the New Visions Health Careers program, Karina’s sisters, Jessica and Daisy, also attended Ulster BOCES and worked on the cupcake bus helping Roza at special events and impressing her with their BOCES-nurtured employability skills.

“The training provided by Ulster BOCES helped to instill the workplace confidence, leadership, and professionalism in Karina and her sisters,” Roza added, noting that she’s had such good experience with Ulster BOCES students, that she hired another young professional from the Culinary program this year.

Looking ahead, Karina envisions melding her Mexican background with the French chocolate techniques she has learned. Her goal is to become an executive chef and to eventually own her own business and create her own “brand.” Possible locations for her future business endeavors include Miami, where, she says there is a sizable Latin community and an up-and-coming food scene.

For more information about Ulster BOCES Culinary Arts program, visit https://www.ulsterboces.org/students-of-all-ages/career-education-for-high-school/ctecourses/hospitality-tourism.