HER-STORY

Culinary school seemed to be a far off dream for the aspiring chef. Though her mom does not remember she stated cooking was a great hobby but she needed to pursue "a real career."

After a wide array of successful career attempts the realization came that food was the only thing she was consistently passionate about. In 2014, leaving a lucrative career in finance, she found The Community Culinary School Of Charlotte. She hounded the Executive Director, Chef Ron Ahlert, until he literally gave her a job at a fraction of what she was making and she was thrilled to work daily. Cleaning and washing dishes doing all the grunt work that lead to her finally being able to cook and learn to cook in a professional kitchen. The intensive culinary training she received was priceless and she even graduated as an award winning Chef gaining the Chef Joe Award, equivalent to The Valedictorian, for her hard work and dedication and refusal to settle for anything but excellence. 

As the passions unfolded and Chef L.A. Bond started her professional culinary career she was well prepared and heavily sought out. Directly out of culinary school she was hired at a local upscale Bar-B-Que restaurant that had yet to open its doors and she was able to get firsthand experience with recipe testing and in a brand new kitchen where she was able to use her creativity to add pizzazz to the menu items and plating. Her future endeavors led her to the famous Duke Mansion in Charlotte, NC alongside world class chefs and as time went on she moved to be a high volume cafeteria chef for a local corporate cafeteria still under the Compass - Eurest Brand. Not too long after she was living what she would call “the dream” she had a terrible car accident that could have caused a career ending injury. She needed to find a job where she could work even when she could not walk. So back to the corporate grind she went. 

After a few attempts at finding something fulfilling she embarked on the greatest adventure yet. She went down the path of entrepreneurship and in 2018 launched her own food services organization Beyond Blessed LLC. With the initials of her late grandmother Barbara Bond. The double B with the Angel watching is the sure fire way you know you will receive food prepared with love, care and health in mind. 

During her life of ups and downs Chef L.A. Bond was able to find her way back to God and become a clergy member of Unity Fellowship Church Charlotte. She is a local Game Changer and as part of ministry found that her three main passions can coexist inspired by one of her late mentors L’Tricia Chandler to “do something bigger”  she launched an annual ministry called "Kids Cuttin’ Up." This program teaches children 3 dynamics of kitchen life; knife skills, food safety and nutrition. Chef L.A. Bond is thrilled to venture out into the community and work side by side with The Park Community Development Corporation stepping into low income neighborhoods spreading the knowledge that we can eat to live and still enjoy our food. Chef L.A. Bond has a true passion for Children, Music and most of all Food. She has always desired to leave a legacy behind stating, “If I do nothing else I want to feed people” with some of her latest ventures she is able to help people learn to properly feed themselves with no boundaries on age, income or learning ability.