By: Amber Perrodin & Chef Daniel Hintz

Born in Orange County, California to parents from the Marshall Islands, Chef Judy Tatios learned from an early age to experiment in the kitchen with a wide variety of ingredients. It was her time participating in Job Corps, a federal program that offers free-of-charge education and vocational training, in which her passion for food was unleashed and her dreams of opening her own restaurant were born. Her culinary journey took her to the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu Culinary School in Sacramento, California where she graduated in 2011 with a focus on wines and catering management. Chef Judy also worked under several chefs in wide variety of professional kitchens, learning Asian, European and Hawaiian cooking techniques. While honing her skills and broadening her recipe repertoire, however, she felt a yearning to explore and integrate her culinary heritage of the Marshall Islands. Chef Judy moved to Northwest Arkansas in 2015 with hopes of finding an opportunity to do just that. Working in several kitchens across the region, such as Clarity Point, The Gardens at Osage Terrace, Levis’, Sam’s Good Ol’Burger & Bella Vista Country club where she explored the Ozark foodways to discover the delicious touchpoints between her culture and new home. Working with the Arkansas Coalition of Marshallese (ACOM), she is a featured chef on the online cooking show Enra Cooking and has most recently partnered with Brightwater: The Center for the Study of Food to introduce elements of Marshallese cuisine to a broader audience. She plans to open her first concept called “Street Iakwe, Eulala” in Spring 2021 and will become the first Marshallese Chef to do so in Northwest Arkansas.