Welcome to Parenting in Queens, where we like to connect with amazing moms and dads right her in our own borough.  



I am so excited for season 2. Thank you for joining me. We will listen from more parents who are truly making a difference in their children's lives, work-space and community. I hope that these stories inspire yiu and make this parenting journey much more memorable and enjoyable. 



For our first episode of this second season we have Kim Calichio; she is a mom of two kids from Astoria, she is a professional chef and founder of the Connected Chef; a cooking school for adults and kids.



Here is sneak peak into our episode!



Thank you so much for having me and for making the time to be in the podcast so I would like to start us off with one question how was your routine like before having kids?



K: I didn’t have a routine because I didn’t need one



C: that is so true



K: in terms of cooking in the kitchen



C: in general because because I know you were a top Chef so for me that life is so interesting so I’m trying to picture what your day was like because I think it was probably pretty crazy



K: it was all about working I worked nonstop.  So  I grew up in Long Island. So when I first started working in the restaurant business in Manhattan my commute was two hours each way and eventually I moved to Queens and I just worked all day.  I was going to work from 8 to 10 in the morning and then I will get home at two or three in the morning we would work 14-hour shift,  go out and have drinks afterwards. And that was just on repeat and the days that I didn’t work I would stay home because I was exhausted. Before being in the restaurant business I was a medical professional on Long Island. So routine has always looked different for me depending on what I was doing and what I was focusing on but in terms of the restaurant world it was just all about working which I loved but it’s also different from everything that I have ever done.



C: well I am a fanatic about food and I watch all the cooking shows so I was wondering how it would be for a woman to be in that restaurant world and how crazy that is so after you for having your first child were you in the restaurant business is still?



K: yes a little bit so being a female in the kitchen or in any male dominated industry it takes a lot of effort for a woman that it would take for any though so once I got pregnant I didn’t say anything to anyone for a while then I had to disclose that I was pregnant I was out for about six months when I had my first son. I attempted to go back part time so when I first left I worst executive sous chef for David Burke restaurant in the upper East side in Manhattan I was headed to become the executive chef of one of the new restaurants that was opening them and got pregnant so I left for maternity leave and they were really wonderful they were super supportive and I work for them for a really long time so they have my job which technically for New York at the time but when I come came back it wasn’t an entirely new kitchen so for me as a female I was struck at the bottom I was technically a sous chef but I could’ve had the same respect from people that I did when I first left it was a totally different chef so I had to either make a choice of starting from scratch and building that  reputation again which took me five years to build or find something different to do so because I wanted to stay at home with my son and not work 80 hours a week since I couldn’t do it slowly I wasn’t going to do it at all so I left after working a year after working part time and started to spend time with my son and I started to connect Chef.







C: so now that your kids are 7 and 4 do you have some time to build a routine where you feel good about so where do your morning look like which took me five years to ...