Area: Culinary Arts

  • Tina Spaltro

    Tina Spaltro

    “Sometimes, flexibility in this field is everything. Some people are very particular with what they want, and you have to use your creativity within the guidelines they give you. You have to realize it’s not all about you, but you can still use your creativity to put out something amazing.” 

    Tina Spaltro, originally from Philadelphia, is a pastry chef at the Dunes Golf and Beach Club. Spaltro earned a degree in interior design at Radford University in Virginia and moved to Myrtle Beach 35 years ago. After working different jobs, she entered the International Culinary Institute of Myrtle Beach at Horry Georgetown Technical College (HGTC), graduating in 1997, and began her career as a pastry chef.

    Interview

    Transcript

    Tina Spaltro 

    My name is Tina small town I am from Philadelphia originally. I’ve been living here in Myrtle Beach for about 35 years now. I moved here after college.  

    Sara Sabota 

    So where did you go to college? Was it up in Philadelphia or down here? 

    Tina Spaltro 

    No, actually into Radford University in Virginia. I graduated there with a Bachelor of Science and interior design, not from culinary at all. I came down here and found a job in that field. And basically, it was all it was all on commission. And I wasn’t, I wasn’t a salesperson. So, I kind of really realized that about halfway through my career. I wanted initially to start with going to culinary school, but my parents were like, No, absolutely not. But I came here, and I worked for a little while and I waited for tables. Thats where I met your husband (interviewer and interviewee met through interviewer’s husband) and I decided I wanted to go to culinary school. Down here and I ended up graduating I think 97 at Ori Georgetown tech.  

    Sara Sabota 

    Tell me a little bit then where you went from there. How has your culinary career developed? 

    Tina Spaltro 

    During school, I did a couple internships. With some small places around town, really the first job that I had was with the island Vista, or actually with the Sea Island Inn. I learned a lot, there it was like a fixed price menu, so it rotated on a two-week rotation. And that’s kind of where I started baking. Because really, initially, I was hired to bake. Although I didn’t have any baking background at school. We didn’t have that program set up yet. But I’ve only taken a couple baking classes.  

    Tina Spaltro 

    But Mike, the chef there, was really into having fresh desserts, and fresh bread. So that’s kind of where my love started with it. I did learn a lot there by you know, working the line and doing prep work and ordering and stuff like that. But basically, I went from there to a small place like NYX on 61st. It was like the old Latiff’s. I went there, worked there for about nine months, and then this job at the Dunes Club opened up and I moved over to there. And that’s where I started as the pastry chef.  

    Sara Sabota 

    So, tell me about your titles from Sea Island inn Island vista all the way up. What was your title? 

    Tina Spaltro 

    Straight out of school I mean, just you know, a little bit everything. I mean, like I said, Baker, you know, line cook. 

    Sara Sabota 

    You were just hired as a cook? 

    Tina Spaltro 

    Yeah, just hired as a cook. And I just kind of like learned my way, you know? A little bit more baking over at NYX on 61st. Actually, that was probably my first pastry chef position. And then, when I came here, I was hired as the pastry chef. So, I was here for six years. And then I went over to the Marina Inn for six years and opened that property. And then they sold, and I came this job became available again. So, I’ve come back here, so I’ve been here twice.  

    Sara Sabota 

     I’m going to go ahead and go through these questions. What do you do for work and where are you currently working from? 

    Tina Spaltro 

    I’m working at the Dunes Club as the pastry chef. I mean, we do pretty much a little bit of everything, a lot of menu planning, a lot of like creative wise would be like the menu planning and seeing projects go all the way through. Like coming up with an idea figuring it out and then figuring out how to do it for like 300 people. You know, that’s a lot, I know it sounds funny, but somebody will come to you with an idea and then you have to make it work, you know?  

    Sara Sabota 

    When you say somebody comes to you with is that a client, so you meet directly with clients?  

    Tina Spaltro 

    Yes but, sometimes not you know, we run off a banquet package too. A lot of times members will come to me saying you know, I really like lemon what can you do for me with lemon dessert, or you know, stuff like that just. Basically, membership or you know, outside clients.  

    Sara Sabota 

    I know you don’t have a typical day but just pick a recent day and walk me through the kinds of things that you do from beginning to end if you can.  

    Tina Spaltro 

    Oh yeah sure. Like today so we just opened a new property down the beach club I don’t know if you’ve been down there yet or not. We have a small menu down there. So, this morning, I went down there to check out what was left over. We prepared a prep sheet for that came back up here and we also had dinner service up here, so we went checked. Wednesday starts dinner service so checked all the desserts up there made another prep list whenever the BEOs for the day to see what we needed. A BEO is a banquet event order that you know any like large banquet that we might have. Like today we have wine tasting for between 70 and 100 people which we have to have many desserts for.  

    Tina Spaltro 

     I registered and referred to prep sheets for that got some orders together for what we needed for the weekend. Like what we went over the banquet sheets, we decided what we were going to make for the weekend and what we needed, what we had already on hand and what we needed to use up. We do a lot of like what we call mini desserts, which is just taking any kind of idea, maybe shrinking it down to a bite size portion, like a lemon meringue pie. Like we could buy little tiny tart shells, like when I said, you take an idea and blow it up, you know, and try to feed hundreds of people with it.  

    Tina Spaltro 

    Like there’s also  all the food purveyors now, and specialty companies provide like either small dishes, what we were going to start small tart shells, or some kind of vessel that you can add, a filling to and you know, top it and you’ve got like 150 in no time, which is great. Also, like making all these mini desserts, we figured out how to take pastry cream and make hundreds of banana puddings. Same thing with like a small vessel, just make it really pretty, that would be the creative aspect of it. The rest of today will include us using our prep sheets will try to get as much done as we possibly can obviously set up the launcher tonight for dinner service, in both restaurants. We also have some to go orders to take care of today and get some stuff ready for the weekend.  

    Tina Spaltro 

    So, it’s not I mean, it sounds really chaotic. And as you know, I also have a really great assistant Tricia Green, she’s come to me. You know it’s been a blessing. And she is great. So, with me and her working together we knock it out really quickly.  

    Sara Sabota 

    Does your job feel chaotic, or does it feel scheduled and orderly? Or both? 

    Tina Spaltro 

    A little of both. Yeah, some days are really chaotic. But you know, we managed to get through them. You know, it’s really all about how you organize yourself. It’s just like everything else. 

    Sara Sabota 

    Yeah. Wow. Can you think of a defining moment in your creative journey, either a job that you landed, or maybe something that you made? Was there a point where you realized, this is what I want to do, or look at what I’ve done or something like that? 

    Tina Spaltro 

    You know, I think it was like opening the hotel at the Marina Inn, like I was here for five years, so really opening the hotel, like freed up like a lot of creativity for me. I got to do write menus, write banquet packages, and do more of like, administrative stuff with that. And that’s where I was able to sit down and really be like, oh, research things and look at ideas, which is also extremely helpful.  I think opening that gave me more like a lot more confidence. So, when I came back here, I was definitely more confident than when I left.  

    Sara Sabota 

    That’s awesome. Can you recommend any specific skills that an aspiring applicant should have to increase their chances of landing a role in your field? 

    Tina Spaltro 

    I think be the skill that you that you should definitely have been obviously creativity, but being flexible with your ideas is really helpful. Sometimes, flexibility in this field is pretty much everything, you know, some people are very, like, particular about what they want. And, you know, obviously, you have to go by those guidelines, 0 even the menus that we have here, we have members that really want key lime pie, or like a brownie skillet. So, you know, doing that, being flexible with that, you know, not realizing that it’s not all you, what you want too is a lot of it and just trying to put out, you know, the best possible food that you can. Also being able to, like, look at stuff, I go through ideas, like from Pinterest, and, like, look at something and just like the way it looks, and being able to, like make it yourself without like following an exact.  

    Tina Spaltro 

    After you bake for a really long time, you have ways that you do things you know, there’s a different like, a lot of different ways to make like pastry cream or something like that. But so, you get all these recipes that you keep like your mother’s sauces and like the way you do things. And then you take from there. I think being able to be creative with that is a big thing because it helps out timewise you know you are if you already know how to do something, you know, and you can change it or alter it to make it work for that situation. It makes it so much easier.  

    Sara Sabota 

    Are there any local organizations, programs or events that you recommend for aspiring creatives? In any field? Are you a part of any or? 

    Tina Spaltro 

    Well, culinary school is great. Okay, school is awesome as far as learning, learning your skills, your skill sets and being exposed to things. There’s also the American Culinary Federation, which is here, which is a group of chefs that get together once a month. I can’t say that I go to all those meetings, but it is a really great way to network with people to find a job or, you know, learn, just sometimes they do a little bit of teaching and stuff there also. There are also some really good events. You know, I think this year, we just did taste the town this year. For a private club. I don’t think it’s a great thing for us. But as you know, ours, like a restaurant or privately on restaurant, might be great. 

    Tina Spaltro 

     There’s also this CAM organization that is for autism, that we did some stuff for this year, that was great. I think really getting involved in the community is like, you meet a lot of people at the school, that you can also link up with that. They do events. So, I would say mostly, getting involved in the school would be a great start. And then from there, there’s always something they always have going on dinners and good ways to network with people.  

    Sara Sabota 

    Then before I go to the last question, this will be my last question. But also, I want to back up. I don’t actually know how big Dune’s club is. How many members? Are we talking about that you work for? Or with or whatever? 

    Tina Spaltro 

    I think we’re like, somewhere between eight and 900. Somewhere in there.  

    Sara Sabota 

    And then what percentage of your work is for outside clients? 

    Tina Spaltro 

    Not as much I do get, you know, out. I often do like birthday cake and stuff or friends and family and stuff. But occasionally I’ll do something like an outside wedding cake, which is great money, and also a big help, but a lot of it is just for members. And you know, our clients that come here and they have events there.  

     Sara Sabota 

    So, do you have any advice for current college students or pre professional young adults who are pursuing a career in the creative world? What would your advice be? 

    Tina Spaltro 

    My advice would be when you watch all those TV shows about how like Gordon Ramsay, and all that, it’s, not really like that. Even with culinary students, you know, we get a lot of these students in here, and, you know, it’s great to go to school and stuff, but you really have to have a hard work ethic to be in the restaurant business. It will be long hours. And it’s not as glamorous, there’s a lot of likes, you know, washing dishes, making things that you’ve made a million times. But in the long run, there is a lot of gratification when you present somebody with something and they say, oh my god, that was the best thing of every eaten.  

    Tina Spaltro 

    That makes you feel like, you know, wow, I’ve really accomplished things. It’s just, you got to get through the daily mundane stuff. And then you get those highlights that that make it all worth it, you know?  Yeah, our, our members are very kind and they always, you know, are very grateful, you know, especially on big holidays and functions where, you know, you’ve worked like 14 hours a day before and got in at six o’clock in the morning and worked until four o’clock in the afternoon. And then you have got to go home and do family stuff. That’s rough. But you know, it’s all makes it worth it. Like when somebody says something kind and you’re like, Wow.  I just got a card the other day from a member, and it was just really nice. It made me feel good and all the hard work seemed worth it.  

    Sara Sabota 

    Well, that’s everything I wanted to ask.  

    Tina Spaltro 

    Awesome. Sara, thank you so much. Thanks for including me. I appreciate it. 

    Sara Sabota 

    Thanks for spending time with me, it’s been great. 

  • Shaquasia Coleman and Labria Strong

    Shaquasia Coleman and Labria Strong

    “Get used to being uncomfortable. You have to feel uncomfortable to get to new levels, because it’s something you haven’t done before. It’s ok to feel uncomfortable. That means you’re doing something right.” – Labria Strong

    Sisters Shaquasia Coleman and Labria Strong are co-owners of Juice Crush juice bar in Conway. They are both from Myrtle Beach and attended the University of South Carolina (USC). Shaquasia earned a degree in public relations, and later, two masters of business administration degrees, and Labria earned a degree in public health. Labria is also a real estate agent on the Grand Strand. 

    Interview

    Transcript

    Shaquasia Coleman
    My name is Shaquasia Coleman, and I’m from Myrtle Beach.

    Labria Strong
    My name is Labria Strong, and I’m from Myrtle Beach.

    Sara Sobota
    Okay, what do you do for work? And where are you currently working from?

    Shaquasia Coleman
    We are entrepreneurs, and we are currently working from our storefront location in Conway. Our business is named Juice Crushed

    Sara Sobota
    Okay. How long have you had it?

    Shaquasia Coleman
    We’ve been inside—well, we started the business in May 2020. And we’ve been inside of our storefront since September 2021. Almost 3 years in the storefront. Four years in business total.

    Sara Sobota
    Okay, and your official job title is CO-owners?

    Labria Strong
    Yes.

    Sara Sobota
    Okay. Great. How did you end up in this field? And how did you hear about it?

    Labria Strong
    So, we actually started creating juices, cold-pressed juices, and smoothies for our mother, who was diagnosed with colon cancer stage four. We noticed she never… she didn’t have an appetite after Chemo treatments. We wanted to make sure she was able to get her nutrients somehow.

    Labria Strong
    So, I have a public health background from the University of South Carolina. So, I looked into juicing and making smoothies, adding protein a little bit more, because she would drink but not eat. And so after she unfortunately transitioned in 2018. Shaquasia and I decided that we needed to continue to juice and make smoothies just because of all of the health benefits that we read up on. And during COVID, all of our family and friends decided that they wanted to juice and have our smoothies and we kind of went from there.

    Sara Sobota
    So, where are you blending? And you’ve told me the story before, and I have written about it before. You had public health and Shaquasia; you had business, was that the blend? Tell me about your, yeah, college degrees. Did you both go to, you both went to USC.

    Shaquasia Coleman
    Yes. But our career paths totally took a different turn. In college, I went to school to get my degree in Public Relations. And then, I received a job opportunity to work in student housing. So, I worked my way up through undergrad from maintenance girl outside to at least a manager, to Assistant Property Manager to working in a corporate level. While in college at the University of South Carolina. Labria, it was a bit of nepotism, she used to work for me as one of my community assistants at a student housing property in Columbia, which started her career in real estate. She’s a realtor here in Myrtle Beach.

    Shaquasia Coleman
    So, we started in property management, which helped us a lot with business because we’re managing million-dollar assets for someone, you know, and making sure that everything’s running smooth and orderly, on a property side. So, it’s helped us tremendously with business. I also have an MBA as well; two MBAs. So, it helped a lot. You know, our backgrounds helped us a lot with becoming entrepreneurs, it was not easy, but it’s been a smooth run so far.

    Sara Sobota
    That’s great. And that was the next question: What background did you have that helped you land that role? You kind of talk through the stages that you went in. This is going to be maybe a little tricky, but can you walk us through a typical work-day?

    Shaquasia Coleman
    Yeah, that is gonna be tricky. And then to go back to how we blend it, the recipes, I don’t know if you’re going to access that before. But we came up with we were looking at the elements in the community, that people we know that their high blood pressure or diabetes, you know, we were looking for the fruits and vegetables to help out with these certain elements.

    Shaquasia Coleman
    And then, we got with one of our sorority sisters, who was a doctor in Internal Medicine. And she went through all of our recipes and told us to add this or add that to, you know, make sure they get more benefits out of that one particular juice. So, that’s how we came up. We had juices, ABC, D, and G. And then, we went through, got with her and then we started making names for everything. So, it all flowed together while we were getting Juice Crushed together.

    Sara Sobota
    So you created it for your mother, but then it sort of evolved with input from experts.

    Shaquasia Coleman
    Because of our mom, it was simple. You know, we just wanted her to get basic nutrients, we didn’t know what we were doing. So, it’ll be some carrots here and this and that there. Make her a smoothie. But as time went on, and we saw that there are people who are actually needing this and that and this, then that’s when we were getting more creative.

    Sara Sobota
    Yeah, right.

    Shaquasia Coleman
    Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

    Sara Sobota
    So, your audience for your business or your demographic is nearby but also broader.

    Shaquasia Coleman
    Right?

    Sara Sobota
    Okay.

    Labria Strong
    Because we all know someone who is in some type of health issue, you know. If you go into a room like and you say, hey, who knows someone who is battling high blood pressure, everyone kind of raised their hand or someone who’s battling or, you know, has fought cancer and overcame, you know. So, someone knows someone that is going through some type of health issue. So we can relate to everyone in that aspect, right? Um, so it kind of just made it seem like, “Hey, I know what my maternal mother and grandmother and you know, were facing and what they went through.” And then I talked to a neighbor, and they have similar issues. So, we were all kind of, you know, fighting this together and trying to make sure everyone is healthy.

    Sara Sobota
    Yeah, that makes sense. Okay. The next question is, can you describe a defining moment in your creative journey? A project that made a significant impact of you— on you, or something you produced that really showcased your creativity? Yeah, it’s probably hard to pin down one thing.

    Shaquasia Coleman
    I mean, so our creative journey lately. I’ll give you an example. And then I’ll go back to that last question. Because I don’t want to keep jumping over for your questions, we are. This is something that we just had done while, for the storefront, well, we had it done for our Myrtle Beach location, but we’re no longer going there.

    Sara Sobota
    Okay.

    Shaquasia Coleman
    So, we had to come together to put this whole together with our artists who did all the painting. We made sure we had certain elements or elements from Juice Crushed, like the orange or the actual, just the names we have on T-shirts, like Juicy. Juicy Baby is something we have on the shirt, of course, juice crush, and then crushing it down at the bottom. But it’s a social media wall, and people are attracted to colors. So, we got what are and of course, we got the cancer statement that everyone says, “Detoxin’,” but we got what our artists who did our first wall, and she did a couple of other items for us to create this wall, just so we can get people in for our marketing, our marketing aspect. Because again, like I said, people are attracted to colors, and they’re attracted to social media, and they’re attracted to pictures.

    Sara Sobota
    Yeah.

    Shaquasia Coleman
    So, it’s been a huge hit. That’s the latest thing we’ve done a lot of, you know, I’m just trying to pinpoint some other things that we’ve done. But that’s the most latest thing that we have. But as far as creativity, our day-to-day, it’s kind of hard, the two of us, I feel like I don’t get enough sleep. So, we tried to touch one thing we always do is touch base with each other in the morning. Because listen, you need to make sure we’re both alive and well ready. So that’s number one. But we always make sure to give each other grace until at least eight o’clock, you know, because maybe I’m at the gym early, or she’s out doing something, or she’s working on real estate work in the morning. But we typically get here around 9:30, we set up, and we have orders that meet us at the door online, or they are here at 10.

    Shaquasia Coleman
    But throughout the day, all day, if we don’t get our work done any outside things that we need to get done before we step into the store. It just won’t happen. So typically, we are on our feet for almost 12 hours just juicing and making orders and meeting with customers, and there are people who come in who want us to do, you know, coping and opportunities or want to partner and things. So, we’re busy and on our feet for the entire time the store is open, and then afterward.

    Sara Sobota
    So, what are the hours of your store? 10 am to…

    Shaquasia Coleman
    6 p.m.

    Sara Sobota
    Six, so yeah, yeah, wow. Okay.

    Shaquasia Coleman
    We tried to open earlier because you want to meet that crowd, but it just wasn’t a hit for us. We know we know that we started at eight o’clock when we first opened up, and we probably could have gave it some more time, but it just wasn’t working for us and our schedules.

    Shaquasia Coleman
    So it’s like, you know, you have to do what works for you as an entrepreneur, and we’re passionate about something, you’re gonna make it work. But 10 o’clock was like when we started noticing that our customers were coming in and the lunch crowd.And a lot of people love the Grab and Go method here. So, you know, we love that as well. They put their orders in, they got this ready, come and get it. And that’s that.

    Sara Sobota
    Yeah, that’s great. Okay.

    Shaquasia Coleman
    And then we go home, go to the gym and start all over again, and do it again. I’m normally, personally, I’m in bed by midnight. I don’t know about her.

    Labria Strong
    Depends on the day.

    Shaquasia Coleman
    Yeah, our days. Just cuz that’s all we know. You know, when people come in with us ask them what they have gone out for the weekend. And we tell them we’re living through them because, you know, we understand the first five years you’re gonna be in tune and focused on the business, and then after that you can feel comfortable hiring people but I love that we’ve made our names known ourselves and we didn’t have anybody in here, you know, either tearing down a reputation or it’s solely on our back. So we appreciate that.

    Sara Sobota
    Yeah, that’s a lot. Okay, so let’s say that someone is watching this video and they want to be you. Can you recommend any specific skills that an aspiring applicant should have to increase their chances of landing a role like yours?

    Labria Strong
    How can I serve it? You know, I feel like the generation now is solely like always on the phone and you know, they’re not having that person-to-person interaction as much as you know, we had to where you had to like five minutes before you can get like an unlimited plan, but people by people, and you know, Shaquasia was always telling me this one when I was working for her, you know, people will come back to you if you make them feel good. Or if you make them feel like I’m being attentive to your needs, right?

    Labria Strong
    And it also ties with me being dual career in real estate when you are paying attention to what your clients or customers are asking for. And you can say, “Hey, how about this,” or “Let’s try this.” We’re making sure we speak to everyone who comes in here we are, you know, we make sure that they feel if they spend their money here, that is actually worth it. And they didn’t feel because you know, a buyer’s remorse, as you can say. So, customer service is definitely huge. Number one, number one, for sure.

    Shaquasia Coleman
    And Time-Management. Time Management is super important. Because, you know, we have a background with dealing with people on a daily basis, being in property management and real estate. So we are, we know that time is valuable for not only them, but for us as well. And we hate to have anyone waiting longer than like 20 to 30 minutes because it’s, I mean, it is juice, so they understand it’s gonna be a little wait, especially if they didn’t put their order in. But if it’s longer than that, then I feel totally bad. You know, we’re always apologetic. Wee make sure we make up for it in other ways.

    Shaquasia Coleman
    But time management is key, I don’t want anyone to be waiting on me longer than they need to. So making sure you’re getting things done in an orderly fashion and on time. And that’s that. So those are two important, important things. And then being very detail oriented, that’s awesome as well, like social media is so important when we’re putting up posts and content that we’re being specific. And letting them know those two are those couple of key words because people their attention, their attention span is. So we’ve been, I like to say like me personally, how much longer am I going to read that whole caption? No, I’m not. I see the words on the video or I see the words on the picture, then I understand what to do.

    Sara Sobota
    That makes sense. Yeah. Okay. Are there any local organizations, programs, or events that you were that you recommend for aspiring creatives around the state? Are there any things that you belong to or go to, that someone could get involved in if they were interested in following your path?

    Shaquasia Coleman
    So the two of us are also members of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated. So, you know, if you’re into being in a sorority and fraternity or fraternity, we have local chapters here, in Horry County, and throughout the Grand Strand, so that’d be one. And that’s a lifetime thing that we are involved in. And then I just completed the leadership branch and program to the chamber. I would recommend that to anybody who has a chamber in your city to get involved, because it taught me a lot about how to become a better leader, I was always a leader, but to know ways in which I can become a better leader, and then get involved in the community at the same time, because we had a community service, along with having enriching relationships with people I probably never would have had relationships with. So, if that’s in your city, I definitely say to make sure you get involved with your chamber, we’re in the chamber. And both we’re trying to get in Conway, we’re already in Myrtle Beach. So.

    Labria Strong
    And then also, we just joined Horry County Community Collaborative, so they call it HC Three. And there’s different nonprofits and businesses that pretty much come together for a common cause just to make sure that the community has their resources. Everyone is kind of brain picking about different resources that the community actually needs. And so you are working with different agencies and organizations for the same calls. And you know, you just never know who you will meet there that can help you with your business or say, Hey, here’s an idea that I’ve seen, or some type of grant or anything that might be out there. So, it helps you definitely network for the same.

    Sara Sobota
    Yeah. Okay, great. And then, last question: do you have any advice for current college students or pre-professional young adults who are pursuing a career in the creative world?

    Shaquasia Coleman
    Being a creative, you can’t worry about anyone judging you; you have to push the envelope and continue to do it until it sticks, you know. Because if you’re going here blindly, and you’re thinking they’re going to accept every single thing that you put out, it’s not going to work, and it’s going to lower your confidence as well. So make sure you’re focused on what you’re trying to create and put it out there, and also to extend yourself grace, like a lot of grace. Yeah, no timelines, either. Yeah. Someone who’s getting out of college like we put so much pressure on ourselves to think at 25 I need to be married with a kid or by 30. I should have three kids. It’s just so many pressures, societal pressures that are placed on us, especially through social media, where we’re having this; what’s it called that imposter, imposter syndrome? Yeah, and Imposture syndrome is tearing us up. So give yourself grace. Sometimes we don’t know, and I’m talking to myself saying this, but you know, get used to being uncomfortable because you know, you have to feel uncomfortable to reach those different levels because it’s something that you haven’t done before. So it’s okay to feel uncomfortable. That means you’re doing something right.