About
Chef Lovely
In her hometown of Chicago, Chef Lovely earned an AAS in Culinary Arts, D in Baking and Pastries, and a BAS in Culinary Management from the Art Institutes. Staging and working in fine dining, catering, and hotels, Chef Lovely sharpened her skills as a chef, leader, and entrepreneur. At the age of 21 she became an Executive Chef at a non profit organization that instructed culinary arts to children and adults throughout the Chicagoland area at schools, firehouses, family resource centers, and more.
For the past 14 years, Chef Lovely has shared her passion for food through culinary instruction. For 9 years in the Chicago and LA markets, Lovely served as Senior Chef Manager, Associate Board Member, and Ambassador for the non profit organization Common Threads. During this time, Lovely taught over five thousand children, teens and adults. Expanding her work with children and families, Lovely created a culinary education platform named, The Young Gourmet. Here, she works in underserved communities teaching cooking skills and techniques with healthy and budget friendly meals. As a voice of health and wellness through food, Lovely was selected to be an Ambassador for First Lady Michelle Obama's national Let's Move initiative. With this honor, Lovely visited schools in Chicago to execute hands on cooking classes with students and assist faculty & program leaders in implementing nutrition curriculum into daily lesson plans for their students and participants.
Chef Lovely held the position of Culinary Specialist at Bloomingdale's for five years. Her role included creating and executing live cooking demonstrations and in-store events to highlight merchandise and sales promotions in the housewares department. After the success of her live cooking demonstrations she began partnering with managers from the fine china, women’s
shoes, fine jewelry, handbags, bedding, and bridal departments to create specific demonstrations and events tailored to each departments needs. She also mentored and assisted other Bloomingdale’s locations throughout the country on how to maximize her culinary program to increase sales and clientele loyalty. Chef Lovely created a culinary tour that visited Bloomingdale’s locations on the west coast, powered by the Meyer Corporation, where she and fellow celebrity chefs executed live cooking demonstrations. Chef Lovely also created meals that were sold at the in-house restaurant, 59th & Lex.
Within her 15 years as a professional chef, Lovely has partnered with numerous companies providing services such as catering, product promotion, and more for in-store and on-location events. Some of these companies include Disney, Kenmore, Ford, Roc Nation, Le Creuset, United Health Care, Jenn-Air, Blue Flame Agency, and many more. Chef Lovely was selected to be a contestant in the Sears Chef Challenge in 2010. This four city, seven month long cooking competition took Lovely to 5 Sears locations where she cooked and served food live for the camera and guests. She fought her way to the semi-finals and won a five thousand dollar donation to support Common Threads in its continued efforts to serve children and families in Chicago.
Lovely held principal roles on Food Network’s Food Network Star, FOX TV’s Hell’s Kitchen, and NBC’s Food Fighters. She has also made appearances on ABC’s The Chew, Hallmark Channel’s Home & Family, and many more. As owner and Executive Chef of Lovely Eats, Chef Lovely offers catering, culinary instruction, live culinary arts performances, and private chefs. Some of her clients include professional athletes from the NBA and NFL, global beauty brands, Grammy award winning music artists, television networks, and more.
