Meet Aly Romero | Private Chef, Food Blogger & Brand Ambassador
We had the good fortune of connecting with Aly Romero and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Aly, what role has risk played in your life or career?
When our daughter was born in 2003, I was working full time in pharmaceutical sales, but I had a huge desire to find a work/life balance that allowed me to spend as much time with her as I could. I took and online real estate accredited course, got my real estate license and left my full-time job. It was scary, but my husband’s career was starting to accelerate, and he began traveling more, so it was definitely the right decision for our family.
It was about this time I really started getting into cooking and trying new recipes. My dad would visit from New Zealand and we would spend our evenings cooking with a glass of wine in hand, to this day, he was my biggest culinary inspiration. First thing in the morning he’d ask me “What’s for dinner, Aly?” and I thought he was crazy to be thinking about dinner at 8 a.m.! When I lost him in 2013, I took my drive and passion and decided to enroll in culinary school classes while our 3 kids were in school during the day. I became obsessed with learning everything I could, whether it was a new technique, cuisine or dish, if I hadn’t tried it, I needed to! I was watching cooking shows, taking culinary school classes and constantly reading new cookbooks and magazines.
At this time, I decided to pivot from real estate into a culinary career, it was where my heart was. I knew I had the experience with 20+ years in my own home kitchen along with everything I had learned to take my career to the next level. I started my own food blog website and began sharing my recipes with the online community, not knowing exactly where it would lead. All I knew was that I had drive and passion and it was the perfect way for me to get my recipes out to the world. By this time, the food blog world was a well saturated market, so it would be 100% up to me to make myself stand out from the pack. With cooking, I truly believe you can taste the difference when a dish when it is made with love, and for me it has always been an extension of showing love to my family and our friends. I stayed true to that motto, and it wasn’t long before I was approached by a few huge brands asking if I would partner with them to create recipes and content as a brand ambassador. The most exciting thing for me was that the brands were so diverse and included many different culinary techniques; Hestan Culinary, a high-end cookware line, Anova Culinary, a sous vide technology tool and Traeger Grills smokers. These were big names, and I knew my passion was shining through in my work to attract such well known, respected brands.
I started getting requests through friends & word of mouth to cook for special events and dinners and it was at this moment, I decided to expand and start my private chef business. I started advertising my services and cooked mainly for private dinner events, business meetings, special occasions and donated private chef dinners to raise money for our local schools and give back to our community. Taking this leap of faith was the next logical step in my career to balance work and family life and earn income doing something I absolutely loved doing!
I was still consistently posting my dishes, recipes and events online and on a whim, I entered one of my dishes to a producer of The Chew who was looking for chefs to compete in a Recipe Showdown. I sent the photo on Twitter and didn’t give it another thought. About 2 weeks later, an unknown number from NY came in and it was one of the producers! I was selected to compete in a virtual appearance in the You on The Chew Recipe Showdown, where the chefs on the show made my Carnitas Street Tacos and tried them on air. Watching Chef Michael Symon taste my carnitas recipe and ooh and ahh over it was such a surreal moment! My recipe won that competition, and it was the beginning of more tv culinary appearances.
About a year later, my husband and I were chosen to appear live on Good Morning America to compete in a couples cook off. My Apple Cider Brined Pork Tenderloin with Mango Salsa & Pancetta Brussels Sprouts were again chosen the winner in a segment judged by Ayesha Curry. About a year ago, I took yet another chance and applied for the Great Food Truck Race on Food Network. It had always been a dream of mine to be on a Food Network show and it was definitely a “pinch me” moment when I was chosen to compete as a member of Meatball Mamas up in Alaska! It was one of the coldest and most amazing experiences of my entire life, what an adventure! We finished top 4 and I was so proud of my team’s performance, especially since we won a few culinary taste challenges along the way, judged by Chef Tyler Florence.
This has all led up to present day and my latest venture. It has been a lifelong dream of mine to write a cookbook, another extension of sharing my recipes with fellow foodies who have busy families and lives but still treasure sitting down together at the end of the day to share a home cooked meal. I did research, networked with social media friends in the same space, reached out to publishers. I put together an outline and culinary proposal and I am proud to say, I am currently working on my first cookbook!
Growing up, I wasn’t a huge risk taker, but I have always been a go-getter and as I began to take more risks, I found that more opportunities presented themselves. When it came to developing my career, I knew I had to pour my heart and dedication into it and just go for it. From there, one opportunity led to the next. Don’t get me wrong, there have also been culinary opportunities and shows I applied for and heard nothing but crickets. I think it’s valuable to show our kids that you don’t win them all but you continue to work hard, improve and try again…also, it’s never too late in life to start a new venture or take a chance, as long as you believe in yourself!
Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
I am a private chef and food blogger, I also work as a brand ambassador for brands such as Hestan Culinary, Anova Culinary and Traeger Grills. This has all lead to competing in culinary competitions on television and I am currently working on my first cookbook! My food is elevated comfort food at the core but spans across many cuisines and culinary techniques including sous vide, grilling & smoking. I cook for private dinner events, special occasions and business gatherings, typically 10-25 attendees. I truly love what I do, and I believe you can taste love on a plate, that’s what sets me apart. I cook for clients with the same high level of care and ingredients as I would with my family and our friends.
It has not always been easy, starting off in 2016 in the food blogger world, it was a highly saturated market and the ability to stand out and get noticed is very difficult. The only thing I could do was to jump in the pool, dedicate myself to it, be consistent with my work and stay true to myself and my culinary style, never sacrificing the quality I believe in. Growing the food blog into my private chef business and subsequent televised culinary competitions didn’t happen overnight. I work at it daily and I’m always challenging myself to come up with new recipes and content. What I have learned is that there are ups and downs along the way, especially during a pandemic and you need to be able to shift when circumstances beyond your control change. In 2020 at the beginning of COVID, no one was calling for private dinners or events since everyone was staying at home. I developed online cooking classes for corporations, and it was a great way to bring a team together to celebrate a holiday or do team building and have a shared experience of creating the same meal to sit down and enjoy with their own families. They were so much fun; this was one of the silver linings of working through COVID.
Giving back to my community is also very important to me. Over the years, I have raised money and awareness for No Kid Hungry, dedicated my time and skills to World Central Kitchen during the Napa Valley fires and donated private dinners for local schools to raise money for their school auctions. I also contributed to an e-cookbook developed by producers at the Today Show to benefit the James Beard campaign “Open for Good” to help raise money for struggling restaurants during the pandemic.
I am so excited about working on my first cookbook and I can’t wait to get it published! Details and updates will be posted to my website (www.alyromero.com) and to my social media sites.
Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
We just moved to the DFW area right before Christmas….so, please tell me, where should we go?? I can’t wait to discover all that the DFW area has to offer and try new restaurants! Our daughter is at TCU and we have loved exploring the Ft. Worth area but can’t wait to get out more in the Dallas area!
Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My dad was my biggest original culinary inspiration, I learned so much from him. Sadly, I lost him in 2013 but I used it as fire to fuel my drive and passion to continue growing, learning and cooking everything I could! I know he is looking down and he is proud of all I have accomplished. As far as the love, support and encouragement of others, I need to give a huge shoutout to my husband James and our 3 kids; Madi (18), Nick (16) and Austin (12). I could not have taken the chance to start. my own culinary career or participate in some of the lengthier televised culinary competition shows without their unwavering love and support, it means everything to me. They believe it me, support me and are the world’s best taste testers. I also want to mention that Chef Tyler Florence has been an amazing source of inspiration and mentorship. I grew up watching “Tyler’s Ultimate” on Food Network and cooking so many of his recipes. Over the years, he has been so supportive of my culinary journey. Having a chef who I have looked up to for so many years on Food Network believe in my work is definitely a full-circle moment and inspires me daily.
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Website:Â www.alyromero.com
Instagram:Â https://www.instagram.com/alyromero/
Twitter:Â https://twitter.com/CookingWithAly
Facebook:Â https://www.facebook.com/LetsGetCookingwithAlyRomero
Yelp:Â https://biz.yelp.com/biz_info/RGQ-7-AXRxS1x8NiWCbsRA
Youtube:Â https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6CZyHZGIR7L9wJRfM005jw
Image Credits
Good Morning America Monica Wharton Photography
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