Kalamata found her bravery in the memory of a fantastic Food Adventure with her parents and Al Dente. For these chefs, bravery means sharing a piece of themselves, their culture and their love with the people around them. 

Food has taught me that there is reward for bravery, it's often delicious, most of the time it comes to us as a surprise, but choosing to be fearless in food and in life is the beginning to our journey of discovering something new and incredible. My love for food gave me the bravery to become a chef. Food helped me to feel familiar in strange places; no matter how far and wide my travel and learning took me, no matter what languages I could and could not speak, if I arrived at the dinner table or markets of the world to strangers, food was the language we used to inspire our friendship, to create our conversations, and to speak with one another in the language of pleasures.

I think that if you are brave enough to embrace food, you are never truly alone in this world. If you give people your appetite and curiosity, you are met with a form of kindness that all people who cook and care for one another share. Food is how I take the most vulnerable parts of my life; my culture, my identity, and my journey, and speak through gestures of crispy Persian rice and stews studded with dried fruits and spices, only to communicate onto the world who I am, and the enormousness of heart my heritage, my family and I all have. Being brave is the first step in a journey of pleasure and wonder that only food can take you on—brace yourselves for it.

It takes a lot of bravery to try new things—and every time a Taste Bud pledges to "try everything twice," they are committing to being brave and opening their mind up to a new experience. Only through bravery can we change the question from "am I going to like this?" to "I can't wait to try a flavor that I have never had before." Be brave. Try everything twice. Then be braver … and try to cook it! 

Cooking is all about courage! You have to trust yourself and take on new challenges that can have delicious results. For me, sharing my food with people I love is sharing a part of myself.

Food has taught me to let go of prejudices and be confident in who you are as a person and not what you look like, afterall the most important factor in food is how it tastes and not what it looks like.

We love how Kalamata is ready to try new foods. She's like a food superhero going on a new adventure every day! Kalamata is my secret weapon to get the kids to go out of their comfort zone and try new foods. I am so proud of them for being brave and exploring unfamiliar new flavors and scents.