Falling into Food

Teresa Braden had never worked outside of her home until she moved to Montana, where she got a job working at a Wendy’s restaurant with her daughter. She then followed her daughter to a local hospital, where she started out as a dishwasher. After getting a taste for cooking, Braden pursued her culinary passion and is now a cook at the Fort Harrison (Mont.) VA Medical Center.

“I worked as a telephone solicitor for many years for United Cerebral Palsy in Sacramento, Calif. I also worked as yard duty at a grammar school. Then we moved to Montana and that’s where I got my first foodservice job. My daughter and I started working at Wendy’s. I was also working at St. Peter’s Hospital in Helena, where I transitioned into getting into cooking and patient services. When we moved to Montana we didn’t really have a plan. We had bought property and we wanted to build a house. We ended up in a camping trailer area until we were all employed. My daughter and I picked Wendy’s. It was easy access. That was the first time I had ever done anything outside of the house. We worked the morning shift together and we had a lot of fun. My daughter had the opportunity to go to St. Peter’s and she got me on over there. When I started at St. Peter’s I was considered a pool person, so you fill in when people call off. I started off filling in as a dishwasher. Eventually I was trained in all of the areas of the hospital kitchen. I was promoted to foodservice coordinator. The hospital also paid for my schooling to become a dietary manager.

I left St. Peter’s because of a sick family member. Six months later I was hired as a cook at Shodair Children’s Hospital. I had learned to cook at St. Peter’s because that was one of the areas I would fill in. I decided to try going to cooking full time at Shodair. My biggest dream was to get over to the VA. One of the managers at Wendy’s called me and said there was an opening at the VA. At St. Peter’s I did a lot of catering and I was able to use my creativity to do garnishing. I’ve brought garnishing back here at the VA.”