ALUMNI ACCOLADES NOVEMBER

Chef Lorene Devaroe

passionate aDVOCATE FOR THE "Art of Food"

Chef Lorene Devaroe has always had a flair for entrepreneurship and a deep love for cooking. After graduating from college with a degree in Marketing and Radio Broadcasting, she began working for Corporate America. There was still, however, a longing deep in her heart to nurture her culinary gift. Chef Devaroe made the decision to go back to school to study Culinary Arts at Kendall College for 2 years. After several catering events she created a business called "The Lunch Box". From that experience, she founded THE SOLE INGREDIENT CORPORATE CATERING, LLC in March, 2009. She is creative, artistic and very passionate about the "Art of Food"! She believes food is life and should be expressed with the uttermost beauty.

Lorene found Sunshine Enterprise back in 2020 through a colleague and friend. She was organizing her business platform and struggling with some areas so her friend recommended Sunshine’s Community Business Academy (CBA). “The most helpful aspect of the CBA was the marketing, competition analysis, the break even analysis and pricing. I continue to get assistance with finance topics because it is important to understand your financial documents - how to read them, acknowledge any issues before they become problems and of course see what you are doing well,” Lorene explains.

After graduating from the CBA, Lorene took advantage of Sunshine’s Business Acceleration Services (BAS) including coaching sessions that ended up being very helpful. Lorene says “I also made some very good connections with my coaches. I have taken some accelerated classes, menu engineering and pricing. The overall network is very helpful. This was a new industry for me and I have connected with some individuals who have steered me in different directions to get what I need and, most importantly, Sunshine has given me the opportunity to collaborate with them. It’s all about networking!”

Lorene has three tips for entrepreneurs:

1. If you are the smartest person in your group, it’s time to circle yourself in a new group!

2. Run with the eagle’s, not the crows.

3. Surround yourself with people that are knowledgeable and will share the knowledge – GIVE BACK, it will bless you!

Visit www.thesoleingredientcatering.com to see Chef Lorene Devaroe’s mouth-watering menus & pictures