Syrena Johnson

About Syrena

• She was raised in uptown New Orleans, which she calls "one of the grimiest places."
• Growing up, she easily could've gone down a bad path, but she always chose to work and stay in school.
• Her first job was at McDonald's; she started at the bottom and worked her way up to fine dining.
• Looking back, she realizes she was always in the kitchen with her mother; that passion was always inside of her-she just had to identify it.
• Now she works at Liberty's Kitchen, a program for at-risk youth that teaches job skills through cooking.
• Her dream is to have her own restaurant where everyone who comes to eat can lick their plate clean and leave happy.
• For a long time, she thought her hard work would never pay off, but with a little bit of patience, she's been able to see her labor come to fruition.
• Says you have to get out there and get what you want: she's 23 years old and living all of her dreams because she went after them.