IT’S not every day that one goes from sewing sheets and curtains to whipping up soups and salads in the kitchen. But it was a transition Shellian Holland did not think twice about making, particularly as “dressmaking wasn’t doing that great for me and I had heard about the North Coast being a good place for work opportunities.”

Driven by a proactive urgency, Holland, mother of five sons and a daughter, enrolled in culinary studies at a HEART training institution in Morant Housing Scheme, Clarendon Park. “You can always experiment on clothes, but I thought it would be more exciting to try experimenting with food,” she recalled as the rationale that prompted her career shift.

After completing her Level One exams at HEART Runaway Bay Training Institute, the newly minted chef secured employment at Sandals Dunn’s River. Holland dedicated two years of service to Sandals as a pantry chef, before moving into her current job as a chef at the popular Ocho Rios-based eatery, Miss T’s Restaurant.

On the job for six months, Holland confides to Thursday Food that it’s been a useful learning curve, even in instances when the restaurant hosts a bumper dining crowd and the scene automatically becomes hectic. “It’s nice here and I’m getting more experience,” she reasons.

There is a plan to return to school for further studies — “I want to do Level 2 at HEART but I have to work up the money first”, Holland shares — and entrepreneurial visions, to boot — “I want to open a catering business for myself in the future” — but for the time being, the chef, who turns 33 next month, is content to soak up as much on-the-job knowledge as possible.

As for the advice she would impart to young people considering a culinary career, Holland says: “Be strong and don’t always stick to what you know…it’s always better to be open and ready to take advice from others.”