Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/15710
FEATURE : COOKING UP A DREAM This summer Karla Flores was presented the opportunity of a lifetime – a chance to spend the entire month of July as the personal chef for a visiting royal Saudi Arabian family in Newport Cove. Flores, who also owns her own catering business, said the opportunity came about after being referred by a friend of a friend. Cooking for the wealthy royal family provided her with the challenge of trying different recipes and cuisines and becoming close and personal with a culture she wasn't familiar with. It was a challenge she was glad to take. "You know it was just as much as a cultural challenge as it was a cooking challenge," said Flores, 37, of Long Beach. "I made most of the decisions, but you know that in most Middle Eastern countries, it's very male dominated, so I had to deal with that. The family was very health conscious so there were a lot of very light fares, low-fat meals and very little red meat." The road to becoming a chef has been a long and arduous one to say the very least for Flores. In 2002 she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, and shortly after that, while working as a marine mechanical engineer, she fell 18-feet and suffered a spinal shock and was briefly paralyzed from the waist down. And adding insult to injury, just last year Flores suffered what she called a stress-related stroke that sidelined her for three months. After all that, Flores said it was time for a serious career change. She enrolled in the Culinary Arts Program at LBCC in the spring of last year. She said she needed a change and wanted to do something that made her and those around her happy. Flores said she doesn't have a particular specialty as she prefers to experiment, but has a great taste for Italian, French and her native Peruvian cuisines. "I've been cooking since I was 12," said Flores. "Cooking was something that's always been in my family. My mother was such a great cook and she's my biggest influence. I absolutely love it. I really believe that you have to have a love for it and being a great cook comes from the inside. One of the things I love about the program at Long Beach City College is that there is so much room to experiment." At the end of this year, Flores will have completed the program in only three semesters. After that she plans to really kick her culinary career into high gear. In early 2011 she will put her catering business and much of her life on hold and leave for Paris for nine months to study at Le Cordon Bleu's Grande Diplome & Sommelier Program. Then it's back to Long Beach to pick up where she left off. Flores has plans to open her own restaurant in the area that will feature Italian, French and Peruvian cuisines. Her ultimate goal is to become a master chef by the time she is 45-years-old. "I would really love to stay and have my own restaurant in Long Beach," said Flores. "It's such a great, diverse and eclectic city and I think that people appreciate different things and that's one of the many things I'd like to offer." Karla Flores Cooking Cuisines Fit For Royalty