Career and Technical Education Month
February 2, 2022
Richland One Culinary Arts Program Provided Inspiration, Training to Personal Chef and Business Owner
New York City native Jessica “Chef Pebbles” Daniel began cooking when she was very young, but the seed of her passion for establishing a food business didn’t take root until her family moved to Columbia, S.C. and she became a student in the culinary arts program at Richland One’s Heyward Career and Technology Center.
Daniel is now a personal chef and owner of It’s Chef Pebbles, a company based in Columbia that services the Midlands and other parts of the Southeastern United States with custom-made meal experiences.
“As a child, I would always find myself in the kitchen whenever my grandmothers were cooking; however, when I first realized I had a passion was when I would witness the joy that my food gave to people. (Some) started dancing,” said Daniel.
She credits the culinary arts training she received at Richland One, as taught by Chef Dwaine Collier, with providing her with a better understanding of her life’s calling.
“(I learned) that it’s okay to thrive in your talents – that you can turn something that may be a hobby into a complete career,” Daniel said.
Daniel is a 2008 graduate of Columbia High School. At Heyward, her coursework included commercial food preparation, menu strategy, table etiquette, customer service and finance. She completed the culinary arts program and went to work. She continued her studies and earned a degree in culinary arts from Trident Technical College in 2012. The same year, Daniel became the owner of Not Your Ordinary (N.Y.O.) Cheesecakes, which offers a variety of flavors of cheesecake including strawberry, candy apple, maple-bacon and key lime. Six years later, she launched It’s Chef Pebbles, which bears the nickname coined for her by a childhood friend.
Her signature dish is pan-seared, maple chili-glazed lamb chops with braised green beans and herb-garlic mashed red potatoes with cream sauce. Whether a dinner for large groups or one for just a few, Daniel caters the experience to the needs of the client. She can be reached through Facebook (@itschefpebbles) and Instagram (@chefpebbles), as well as at 803-319-6095 or its [email protected].
Hospitality and tourism is the number one industry cluster in the state and ranked fifth among the ten fastest-growing professions. The average annual pay in South Carolina for jobs in this field is approximately $50,000. For more information about the culinary arts program and other career and technical education (CTE) programs in Richland One, call 803-735-3325.
