Sizzle the bacon, now add a dash of salt…don't forget your noodles…and voilà: you’ve got a dish by Daejah.
"I like to cook. I like the smells, the aroma, the atmosphere, the people you meet,” said Daejah McCormick a senior at Kenmore High School.
“She knows what she wants, she's definitely had those kind of hurdles in life so I think that's actually helped her focus more," said Clayton Cunduff, her Culinary Arts Teacher at Kenmore High School.
And it’s those hurtles and focus that makes the 18-year-old so driven to follow her passion.
"It’s something about the feeling you get when like people…tell you like ‘oh this food was so good,’ and making somebody’s day…so it’s really the feeling I get that’s the most rewarding,” said McCormick.
She’s a part of the high school's culinary program, and her teacher tells me her dedication is unmatched.
"Yeah, she's a unique individual, she's just has that pride and passionate behind it,” said Cunduff.
While it can have its rewards, she knows all too well that life isn't always a piece of cake. When she was younger both parents were in and out of jail, so she helped raise her siblings and last year the unthinkable happened. Her mother passed away.
The tears streamed down her face as she still admitted her grief was constant.
“I didn’t really process it at first because you know I just saw her, she was just fine…I wouldn’t wish it on anybody.”
But instead of being destructive in her grief, McCormick decided to be constructive, putting her heart and soul into every meal.
“She [her mom] made it a goal to tell us what she wanted us to do, when she wasn’t here, and that was you know make something of yourself.”
And that's just what she’s done, being accepted into the Culinary Institute of America.
“Oh I’m a proud papa, proud teacher," said Cunduff. “It is kind of a one in a million. It’s the Harvard of culinary schools. All of the great chefs that we see on the food network, this is where they went.”
“I was in the car with my aunt and her kids at the time and I couldn’t really scream, but I wanted to. I just feel really good about it. I’m really glad I got here because I put a lot of work in,” McCormick said.
She hopes to attend the Culinary Institute of America in June. She said when she graduates from there she hopes to open her own restaurant that caters to diabetics, as she and multiple family members have been diagnosed with the chronic disease.
