Tiffany Derry

My love for cooking started with family, but it wasn’t my main focus growing up. I started acting when I was fourteen. Later I got into sports: volleyball, basketball, soccer, track, golf, tennis. Everybody thought I’d be an athlete. I did too. But in high school, I wanted to make some extra money, so I took a job at IHOP down the street from my house. I wanted to be a cook, but at that time the owner said that no women are allowed in the kitchen (which I thought was crazy), so I became a waitress. I always stuck around after my shifts to ask the cooks what they were doing. One day, my manager asked if I was still interested in a kitchen job—one guy didn’t show and they needed someone to step in. That’s where it all started.