Tomas' culinary journey began before they even set foot in the kitchen. For a year before experimenting with cooking, Tomas developed a fascination with food and its connections to history, culture, and science. When they inevitably did begin cooking, Tomas found the joy was in the process of learning a new dish, rather than recreating one they'd made previously. This led Tomas to pursue an internship with Sprouts Chef Training, where they were placed at the restaurant RevE Bistro under Chef Mentor Paul Magu-Lecugy.During their internship, what stuck out to Tomas in the learning process was that there was not one big ah-ha moment, but rather a series of smaller teachings that optimized their cooking skills. They especially enjoyed learning about the efficiency of batching during kitchen prep. For instance, if they had a large container of onions to peel, halve, and dice, it was the most efficient to peel all the onions first, then halve all of them, then dice all of them, rather than peeling, halving, and dicing one onion to completion before starting the next. Along with the useful feedback they received from their mentor Chef Paul, they also enjoyed the conversations they had with chef about his culinary training and his life in France before working at RevE Bistro. Tomas was also able to learn a lot from other kitchen staff at their internship and enjoyed being around people who were passionate about and talented in their work.When Tomas is not cooking, they enjoy writing. They have previously worked as a journalist, and have also enjoyed writing and performing slam poetry. They also crochet and play kalimba, a small finger piano. Tomas is still deciding what exactly they want to do in the future, which is why they were appreciative of the opportunity to intern at RevE Bistro and try their hand working in a high-end restaurant. We at Sprouts hope Tomas continues to pursue their interests, and we also hope to one day sample one of their homemade white chocolate chip brown butter matcha cookies.