Chef By Day, Nurse By Night: Manhattan Health Care Worker Launches Catering Company After Finding Relaxation In Cooking
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- One Manhattan health care worker has a lot on her plate -- she's a chef by day and a nurse by night.
Alexis Phillips is a registered nurse for NYC Health + Hospitals.
"Working with the patients, I do appreciate and I do love what I do, but it's not easy working through this pandemic," she told CBS2's Ali Bauman.
After working 12-plus hour shifts earlier in the pandemic, Phillips would come home, cook herself dinner and share the meals on Instagram.
"I find food as one of my ways to relax myself and I love cooking, so I find when work gets so stressful and I'm cooking and I'm eating, I'm like, yes," she said.
Friends quickly took notice and began asking for their own orders, so in October, Phillips decided to launch a catering company from her home in Westchester called Eat Along With Lex.
"I never thought that I could be able to do something like this, so when people order and when I get bigger and bigger events, I'm like, wow, me?" Phillips said.
Business is taking off. Phillips says she now cooks for about 15 events per month, and that's on top of nursing and studying to become a nurse practitioner.
"I know a lot of people question why during the pandemic? I know you're a front line worker. But listen, God's timing is the best," Phillips said.
"I mean, when do you sleep?" Bauman asked.
"I literally plot my schedule a month in advance, so that's how I'm able to manage," Phillips said.
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It turns out the two careers have more in common than she thought.
"In nursing, you deal with all kinds of people. With catering, you deal with all kinds of people, so customer service is highly important," she said.
Phillips hopes to one day open her own clinic and her own restaurant. It's a tall order, but luckily, she's used to a full plate.
