Jackie Garza, a 32-year-old Miami native, always enjoyed cooking from an early age. With her grandfather being a pastry chef and her grandmother and mother mastering the art of home-cooking, Jackie was always around food and trying to help her family in the kitchen. As a young girl, she would make brownies and chocolate chip cookies for her friend's birthdays and pasta for her sister at home, whic
h was the basis she would use later on in her career. After graduating high school, Jackie attended the university in her hometown and successfully completed a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and History. After completing her degree, she decided to move to New York City to pursue a culinary degree at The French Culinary Institute, where she graduated with honors. Jackie was fortunate enough to be surrounded by world-famous chefs as her instructors such as Jacques Pepin, Jacques Torres, Cesare Casella, Jose Andres, Andre Soltner, Alain Sailhac, and many others. During her time in New York, she had the privilege to be selected to assist acclaimed Spanish chef, Dani Garcia, while he was invited to cook at the James Beard House. After completing her studies, Jackie worked at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Key Biscayne, FL, as a cook for the Main Kitchen and later moved to Banquets. While most of her time was spent prepping for large property-wide events, Chefs George Fistrovich and Jordi Valles, became mentors to her, helping to refine her skills. Over the next few years, she developed a personal style of creating sophisticated food and desserts using traditional and innovative techniques. Following her true passion, she's going all in with her new venture, Las Tres MarΓas, an online Macaron store, which will eventually offer other baked goods as well. When Jackie is not in the kitchen she enjoys spending time with her husband and family, roller blading, sky diving, and watching movies.