Lost in Paris, Kiera Wright-Ruiz stumbled upon a bakery.
She was 16 and on a high school, educational study-abroad trip. Wright-Ruiz had wandered for a short time, and without an iPhone to find her way back, she passed the time with a friend.
Parisian pastries sat in the window, waiting to be devoured. A chocolate mousse cake caught her eye, and after ordering the treat, she made her way to a tiny, cobblestone alley and took a bite.
The taste engulfed her. She trekked through its texture. She swirled through its sweetness. It was so good. She couldn’t believe it was so good.
There, in the city of lights, Wright-Ruiz fell in love with food.
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When Wright-Ruiz came to UF, she started studying journalism. Though she still had a passion for the culinary arts, she wanted to express other interests in other ways.
Writing was her focus, but it didn’t take long for food to find its way back into her life.
Near the end of her freshman year, Wright-Ruiz happened upon a site called Foodbeast, and she ate it up. A self-proclaimed “foodie,” she contacted the site’s owners. It was a shot in the dark, but she was interested in being involved.
They got back to her faster than she’d expected, and before she knew it she was writing for them.
“I didn’t even know how important internships were at the time,” said Wright-Ruiz, now 20.
Since then, the small start-up site she contributes for has blown up. The New York Times and the Huffington Post both list the site as a top resource for anything food-related. She still writes for them, and Wright-Ruiz believes her involvement helped her land an internship with Bon Appetit – the go-to food-guru magazine – in New York City last summer.
“I do everything and anything pretty much food related,” Wright-Ruiz said. As she was being interviewed, she was preparing a dinner of mustard and apple-cider-marinated pork chops over roasted potatoes.
“Not out of a chore,” she said. “It’s something I’m actually really passionate about.”
As she nears the end of her college career, the journalism senior is broadening her horizons. Food is her passion, but she is considering writing for an unrelated publication first.
“Food writing is the end goal,” she said, “but after having that internship, I realized don’t have to be there right away.”
For girls finishing freshman year and still figuring themselves out, Wright-Ruiz said to focus on your passion.
“I think when anyone comes to college, they need to look at what they’re good at and what they’re passionate about,” Wright-Ruiz said. “Hopefully those line up.”