Chef Tonii Hicks is a busy lady! This enterprising young chef is making bold moves and is a name you’ll likely hear more in the future.

Chef Tonii got her start through the C-CAP program in Philadelphia. C-CAP (Careers through Culinary Arts Program) is a workforce development nonprofit that provides underserved teens a pathway to success. She completed the program in 2016 and went on to study Culinary Science at Drexel University. She graduated with her Bachelor of Science degree in 2021.

In 2019, she spent six months in Mexico, working at a resort near Cancun, learning the ins and outs of a busy resort kitchen, filling in for the Executive Chefs, and gaining considerable hospitality experience.

“It was a great hands-on learning experience,” Hicks explained. 

Chef Tonii’s career has ramped up substantially since her time in Mexico and obtaining her culinary degree. Instead of taking the traditional career path of working in restaurants, she started her own business offering event catering, private chef, meal prep, menu/recipe development consulting services, and offering cooking instruction classes, of which she is particularly fond.

“I enjoy teaching people how to cook!” Hicks professed.

As if that isn’t enough, Chef Tonii is also a part-time Program Coordinator at C-CAP, overseeing student scholarship applications and demonstrations for cooking competitions.

Furthermore, she works part-time as the Culinary Director and Kitchen Manager for People’s Kitchen, founded by fellow inspirational chefs Cristina Martinez and Ben Miller of South Philly Barbacoa. The nonprofit organization helps fight food insecurity in Philadelphia, a personal passion of Tonii’s. 

She’s also putting her culinary science degree to use by creating vanilla extracts (chocolate-vanilla, lemon-vanilla, strawberry-vanilla, etc.) and infused cooking oils. She will start selling on her website soon and offering recipes for professionals and home cooks alike. 

WOW! Chef Tonii Hicks is definitely a woman chef you should know in Philadelphia. Watch her star rise. Visit her website to learn more.

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