What started out as a hobby turned into a food journey. I am a chef located in Charlotte, N.C. I’ve been cooking for the last 15 years. My experience with a wide variety of foods started in Southern California. I spent 25 years there and that enhanced my palette. Also my heritage and travel played a major role in my culinary expertise.

Growing up with very humble beginnings a standard meal may have consisted of beans and hotdogs (franks). Eating out was a luxury. I would watch the food network and visualize like I was in Peter Pan’s movie Hook (pan to scene) Use your imagination. I made a promise to myself at a very young age that when I became an adult I would cook what I wanted. That took a backseat although still cooking for myself and friends. I went on to have a singing career and met my soulmate. After we wed years later i began to really blossom in the kitchen. You know what love does. Atlanta exposed me to Soul Food on another level. They took Soul Food and put a 5 star country twist on it. Four years later my family moved to Charlotte. This move opened me up to a world of fresh vegetables and seasonal fruits. I began to garden and experiment with new foods. My neighbor had a pear tree. After bagging and tagging so to speak I got in the lab like a mad scientist and created Ms Princess Jam. I knew it was good but I had to get a second opinion and not my husbands. Everyone that tasted my jam fell in love and that was the start of a masterpiece.

The kitchen became my best friend. My love for food grew and so did my family. Now totaling five I can understand it may not be feasible to have a feast every night. Unbeknownst to my family they were my taste test dummies. I’ve overcooked and scraped burnt ends off food. I’ve perfected and laughed at myself many times. So i started writing the recipes down that I could make in less than an hour. I tested them over time. My book Cooking with Ms Princess (Homemade with Love) is one of my greatest accomplishments in life. My food journey hasn’t just began however the sky is the limit.