Collin Black is one who has led life with an open mind and an open heart. He has always jumped in with a positive outlook, and a determination like no other. An attitude like this is rewarding on many levels. This, as well as his life long passion for cooking, has led him to pursue his dreams of becoming a chef.

Even though cooking has been a love of Collin’s for as long as he can remember, he hasn’t always known he wanted to be a chef. Before deciding to pursue cooking as a career, he was planning to become a CPA (certified public accountant). Then during the middle of his junior year, he realized he would much rather be in the kitchen than at the office.

This past summer Collin was able to study under a sui chef in Colorado. He learned some new cooking techniques and thoroughly enjoyed his time spent there. He worked with all kinds of different foods. Some of his dishes were exotic and a little more daring while others were the classics with some very tasty twists.

I could tell that Collin was very passionate about food. Referring to his cooking he said, “I love it because it let's me be creative. I look at creating food as a form of art. It also makes me happy to create something myself and to see people enjoy it.”

Collin’s ultimate dream would be to open a winery. He is working towards that as he plans to attend college and get a degree in business. He also hopes to study as an intern chef at Vance Vineyards soon.

Collin has never been one to sit on the side lines, and that is one of the many things admirable about him. Always involved and in it to win it, Collin is taking the steps needed to reach his dream of one day becoming a chef.