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Dunkirk native’s culinary training journey leads to Animal Kingdom at Disney

A recipe for SUCCESS

At top, Carrie Smith, at left, is pictured representing Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge.

When Brenda Smith heard her daughter was using a chainsaw in school she couldn’t believe her ears.

“I’m like, oh my God, Carrie, they gave you a chainsaw!?” Mrs. Smith said. “I still have pictures of her carving ice. I was pretty impressed.”

It’s a good thing Brenda trusted the process because as it turns out Carrie has since carved herself out a nice slice in the baking world.

Carrie Smith, a Dunkirk native and 2012 graduate of the Erie-2-Chautauqua-Cattaraugus BOCES Culinary Arts program, is celebrating three years as the bakery chef assistant for Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge.

Carrie’s path to Florida wasn’t always clear, but she knew one thing was for sure — she wanted to bake. During her time in the program, Carrie’s love for baking continued to grow and developed into a passion she’d look to continue after graduation.

To better prepare herself for her career, she embraced her after-school job working in the food service industry.

“I took every chance I could,” she said. “I didn’t really want to work at McDonald’s but by working there I was able to gain industry experience and I took it as an opportunity to be in management.”Carrie’s enthusiasm for baking didn’t go unnoticed by her instructor David Caccamise, who remained in contact with Carrie as she pursued her dream.

“Carrie was always a very enthusiastic student that had a passion for this industry,” he said. “Always polite and respectful and eager to help out where needed.”

Succeeding in the classroom wasn’t enough for Carrie.

Career and Technical Education students participate in internship opportunities with area businesses to gain on-the-job experience. To better improve her craft, Carrie took it upon herself to lobby for an internship with The Cakery in Fredonia. The business had just recently opened its doors to a new location under a new name and Carrie was eager to learn more.

“The Cakery let us come in for a tour and I begged her to take me for an internship. The owner (Peggy Rose) said no, I just work by myself, but I begged her,” Carrie recalled. “She let me in and I was the very first person she had for an internship. I still talk with her everytime I’m in town. I even stayed on after my internship.”

Carrie credits her family for her love of baking, which began with her grandmother and father, whom she says has baked all of her birthday cakes for as long as she can remember.

Despite having baking bloodlines and her coming in first place in the annual gingerbread making contest at the LoGuidice Center during her junior and senior year, Carrie still couldn’t imagine baking as a career option.

“I still wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, but I knew I liked to bake,” Smith recalled. “Our senior year I was applying for colleges and I was actually denied from Johnson & Wales and from Le Cordon Bleu. So I thought I’ll just go to school for hospitality because I didn’t get accepted to baking from either one of those schools. I had applied to the Culinary Institute of America, but they hadn’t responded back to me so I doubted I’d get in.”

Carrie received her acceptance letter for hospitality and then three days later she received her acceptance letter from the Culinary Institute of America.

“We had toured the CIA and I loved it from the moment we walked in. It’s still crazy, it just happened. It was nothing I ever thought I’d be able to get in to.”

During her studies at the Culinary Arts Institute, Carrie’s focus narrowed further thanks to externship opportunities that led her to the Sunshine State. After completing 18 weeks of externship work at Disney’s Yacht and Beach Club, and another six months at Disney’s Grand Floridian, Carrie was hired full-time.

Today, Carrie is the Bakery Chef Assistant for Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge, a resort next to Animal Kingdom Park, and handles baking duties for three locations: Boma, Sanaa and Jiko. Recently she helped put together a new concierge menu and in the coming weeks she’ll be working on a new dessert rollout for the Jiko location.

“She always loved to bake,” Brenda Smith said. “She’s doing really well for herself down there, she just bought a house. I’m pretty proud of her.”

For more information on the Culinary Arts program or other Erie-2-Chautauqua-Cattaraugus course offerings please visit www.e2ccb.org or call Janeil Rey, director of Workforce Development, at 716-549-4454, ext. 4026.

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