Best Teen Chef 2008 Local Finalists - Houston
Erikah Moorehead-Belvin
Brownsburg High School
The International Culinary School at The Art Institute of Indianapolis’ Best Teen Chef 2008
Erikah Moorehead-Belvin has been in the kitchen most of her life. She started helping her mom as a young child and her uncle is a chef. She began cooking at home around eight years old. At ten years old, she started cooking at her church. She attends the International Life Church of Indianapolis and every week they cook breakfast and lunch for hundreds of people.
Erikah has further refined her culinary skills at school. She attends Brownsburg High School in Brownsburg, Indiana. Erikah gets up early to go to school. Upon her arrival to Brownsburg High School, she and several of her classmates are bused to a culinary arts program. Once she is done with class there, she returns to finish her regular high school classes at Brownsburg.
At home, Erikah’s parents have been supportive and encouraging. Erikah has her own restaurant set-up at home. Here she creates a menu, explains the menu, takes orders, cooks and serves her parents. They receive a bill and pay it, including a tip. Her favorite foods to cook are anything seafood. Shrimp and tilapia are her favorites, perhaps because she was born in Florida.
When she is not cooking, Erikah is usually dreaming about having her own restaurant. First, she wants to work under a great chef in a restaurant to learn the daily workings of a restaurant. Her goal is to open her own place and she hopes to encounter less rookie mistakes and already have made a name for herself.