San Diego Community College District

After honing baking skills in College of Continuing Education’s Culinary Arts program, alumna trades in office jobs for fine dining 

A young Sarah Ramos remembers picking moringa leaves while cooking with her aunt every summer in Quezon City, Philippines.  

“She absolutely loved to cook for family parties. I was her assistant,” recalled Ramos, 43, who was born in Manila. “She is not with us anymore, but I was so inspired by her. I would come home and cook for my siblings’ birthdays, anything they wanted.”

Although a good cook, Ramos — whose home kitchen was a sanctuary that provided a respite from various stressful HR and administrative office jobs she worked in for nearly 20 years — said her baking skills were a recipe for disappointment.  

Today, her talent is quite the opposite of disappointment.  

Thanks to the knowledge she gleaned while enrolled in San Diego College of Continuing Education’s Culinary Arts program, Ramos is now lead pastry at Addison, which, at the end of 2022, earned its third Michelin star — the only restaurant in Southern California to boast this coveted dining accolade and the only restaurant in America to do so since 2019.

The transformation has been profound. Ramos said that before becoming an elite pastry chef, trying to bake something as simple as a batch of chocolate chip cookies with more taste than what you could find at a grocery store often made her feel like a failure. “I read many cooking books and would borrow books just to learn,” she said.

Her baking prowess was transformed beginning in 2019, when she decided to enroll in the Culinary Arts program at College of Continuing Education, earning a certificate in 2020.

“The fundamentals of French cuisine are a major part of the curriculum. French techniques translate to every culture,” Ramos said. “Once I learned this, it all made sense to me, I started to really understand the chemistry behind cooking and baking.”

The free Culinary Arts program at College of Continuing Education is a study in success. Students spend 10 months on cooking principles, including sharpening knife skills and learning basic safety and sanitation standards. That’s followed by two more months of advanced-level cuisine preparation, lessons on nutrition and diet plans, molecular gastronomy courses, restaurant operations, and food and beverage management.

The preparation made Ramos a perfect fit for the Carmel Valley restaurant where, for the past 16 years, Executive Chef William Bradley has been refining his craft of contemporary Californian cuisine that the Michelin Guide calls “playful yet polished.”

While at College of Continuing Education, Ramos studied under Chef and Associate Professor Megan Leppert, a graduate of Johnson and Wales University and three-time American Culinary Federation Medalist, and Chef and Associate Professor Lee Blackmore, a California Culinary Academy alumnus and Culinary Educator of the Year.

“I have the least experience on the line at Addison, but the College of Continuing Education gave me the confidence to be here,” Ramos said of the kitchen she joined in June 2020. “In fact, I refer to the same book we used in class to do research and development for the restaurant.”

Indeed, under the direction of Chef Bradley, Ramos leads research and development to curate mouth-watering pastries and desserts for the restaurant.  

“As soon as Chef Bradley shares his vision, my team and I start testing ingredients to make it happen and bring that dessert to life,” she said. 
This process can take weeks before her creations make it on the Addison menu, which aside from their signature items, rotates often. “Chef Bradley is not afraid to change the menu to provide customers a once-in-a-lifetime  experience.”

The key to success? “Follow your chef, follow the recipe exactly, collaborate with your team, listen and learn as much as you can.” 

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FROM SARAH’S PERSONAL KITCHEN

From her home to yours, Chef Sarah Ramos shares this personal recipe that she says is great for a pie filling, or as a crumble, topped off with maple Chantilly. 
Pumpkin Filling

• 450 g kalabasa (kabocha) squash
• 4 large eggs
• 120 g evaporated milk
• 120 g condensed milk
• 100 g sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 Tbsp bourbon
• 1 tsp cinnamon powder
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg powder
• 1 tsp anardana (pomegranate seed) powder [often used in Indian and Persian cuisine] 

To prepare the squash, cut it in half lengthwise, remove seeds, place flesh down on a baking sheet and drizzle skin with a neutral oil and season with salt. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes. Once cool, remove the skin and puree the squash along with all other ingredients using a whisk or food processor.  

Add the puree to a prepared pie crust or place on its own in a baking dish and top it off with a crumble mixture of equal parts flour, sugar, and butter. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. 

Maple Chantilly  
(whipped cream)

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1/4 cup maple syrup  

Whip heavy cream until soft peaks form and add maple syrup. Whip again to a stiff peak.