Orlando Wyl Lima | Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts

When I used to think of success, I had a pretty bad habit of always looking at the end result. I will be successful when...I will be successful if...

The last three years of my life showed me that there are levels to everything that you do in life. The acknowledgment of said levels and attaining them can and very much should be looked at as success. Two years ago, I lived in my car just so I could get into the Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts. I sacrificed. Mind you, I had a comfortable life for an unstable and relentless pursuit but I also had a vision: work for a Michelin starred restaurant and chef.

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That sacrifice led to winning the James Beard scholarship, the highest honor for any culinary student. This, in turn, got me into school which got me to my dreamworking at the 3 Michelin starred restaurant Grace in Chicago.

Two years have passed since sleeping in that 2000 Toyota Avalon, and one year has passed since I left everything behind and went to Chicago in search of my success. I sacrificed who I was and what I was for the pursuit of this dream.

Today, I am a hired cook at a Two Star Michelin restaurant, and I can proudly say I am successful. I know the path to my next level is going to be filled with hardships of some kind but also triumphs. Through all the struggles and setbacks, I look back and see that there always was a bit of success attached to every step of my journey: I lived out of my car but I got the highest scholarship by the James Beard Foundation; I moved across the country to a strange city but it meant working at Grace.