Boston Public Library's new resident chef to lead cooking and nutrition classes in Roxbury
ROXBURY - Inside the Roxbury Branch of the Boston Public Library is a bright, HGTV-like kitchen that will soon be home to the first-ever Chef-in-Residence.
The new chef will make her home at the Nutrition Lab, and it's all thanks to an anonymous donation to the Boston Public Library Fund.
"I manifested it. I feel like this is my dream job right here. For me, it's the perfect old lady job. I just love it," Chef-in-Residence Glorya Fernandez told WBZ.
Fernandez grew up with aunts who loved to cook and has always loved food.
She said some of her favorite memories were at family gatherings around the table.
"I just found that when you bring people around food, it changes their mental composition sometimes, especially if it's something that's really tasty," she said.
Before this job, she taught cooking programs at Daily Table Health Centers and even started her own business, GoGoBytes.
"I would really like people to feel safe and comfortable in the kitchen," she explained.
All of her library-based programs will be free. Fernandez hopes to empower people to explore cooking techniques, local ingredients, nutrition, and Boston history through hands-on classes and demonstrations.
She knows people's ideas of what is healthy can be subjective, so she wants to focus on what's beneficial.
"My goal is to talk to people about when you're purchasing food, when you're deciding what to eat, consider what's beneficial for your body and where you're at right now," she said.
You can meet her at her next community listening session on April 8 where she is looking for the public's assistance to inform her programs.
