Marcelo's life as a chef
25/06/2008
An independent young man from the SOS Children's Village Concepción talks about his life experience and shares a success recipe of life that keeps him and his family happy.
He is a professional chef and assures that the principal ingredients of a tasty, nutritious, and long lasting happiness are three. He says he learned about those ingredients thanks to SOS Children. Do you want to know what they are?
Marcelo lost his mother as a very small child. Back then, his mother was expecting a baby; she moved to live in the countryside with some relatives, and fell sick. Soon she died from a fatal disease.
"Aunt Juany, a family helper at SOS Children's Village Concepción, met me one day when I was wandering about on a street. Concerned about me, she looked for my relatives so as to talk to them about me and let them know about the village. I was the smallest in my house; my elder brothers attended school, so I was practically living in abandonment." says Marcelo.
When Marcelo was welcomed to SOS Children's Village Concepción, he was just two years old. The SOS family taking him in consisted of six other children and an SOS mother.
Marcelo thinks that living at the village was like a blessing: "I found a new family in the village and an identity. I left the village several years ago, but the link with my SOS mother Susana, (who has been working for the organisation for 18 years now) and my brothers and sister at the village has ever remained similarly strong."
Towards professional growth
While sharing cooking moments with his SOS mother Susana, Marcelo discovered his special talent. "Unlike my brothers and sisters at the village, I was not used to receiving visits by my relatives. On Sundays I loved to spend long hours with my mother in the kitchen instead. When I was about nine, my mother realized I enjoyed helping her in the kitchen very much. Sunday's lunch was the most delicious, the most rewarding. Our dishes looked and tasted really great," he remembers.
Marcelo decided to pamper his vocation for cooking as a gift. After high school, he went to Santiago where he chose to study at the school of cooking and hospitality.
After finishing his studies there, he found a first job at a small, but well-recognized restaurant known as "Geraldine". He started as an assistant - he was still a beginner. But, thanks to his innate talent, he was promoted to master cook within days.
Recipe for happiness in life
"I think that life is like a tree with three basic branches: loyalty, perseverance, and humility," says Marcelo. "But today I can also say that happiness is like cooking with those three main ingredients. I always take the opportunities in life, no matter how small they are, and 'cook' my destiny with those ingredients."
Presently, Marcelo is the chef of a recognized tourist seaside resort in Buchupureo (located in the "Del Maule" region south of Santiago). The place is very attractive and offers visitors loads of entertainment: the beaches, hiking, and, of course, a great variety of local cuisine. He married a kind woman named Marcia and today enjoys the company of his beautiful one-year-old daughter Cristiane.
For Marcelo, the village was the great 'starter' of his success. He feels like without the support of the village and his SOS family, his life would have been less promising. He also emphasizes, though, what difference the support by his sponsor, a kindhearted woman, made, who in this way helped him pursue his career.
Relevant Countries: Chile.