Ivanna Villanueva working on a new concept in healthy food; BREAD CYCLE
Chefs Ivanna Villanueva and Nelson Fernandez will soon open a new dining option for Miamians! “Bread Cycle”, offering a unique selection of healthy dishes, based on Mediterranean cuisine and served on a variety of bread-based presentations. “Bread Cycle” will be conveniently located at Giralda Place, in Coral Gables, with easy access to parking.
“Bread Cycle”, in words from one of its founders, Chef Nelson Fernandez, will offer its clients the best food quality and high service standards both by its service at the restaurant and through its take-home options. Chef Fernandez defined the menu as “innovative dishes served in four styles: Tartine (open face sandwiches on sourdough), wraps (on pita and dosa breads), pide (a turkish double-fermented flatbread) and as a fresh, delicious salad”. In reference to the restaurant’s ambiance, Chef Fernandez declared, “our restaurant will offer high service standards in a fun, classy informal, organic and rustic ambiance with wood and metal elements”. The restaurant will be open for business 6 days a week for breakfast, lunch and early dining, with a Happy Hour experience. It will offer, besides regular beverages, a selection of beer and wine.
Chef Fernandez is accompanied in this venture by his wife Ivanna Villanueva, Nelson and Ivanna are both graduates from Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts, where they developed their skills in Advance Gastronomy, innovative food preparation, health and nutritional concerns, food and beverage management, and core operational elements of restaurant operations. This knowledge guarantees that the city will find in “Bread Cycle” a professionally managed restaurant that will enhance the community’s culinary options.
Chef Ivanna Villanueva declared: “Bread Cycle’s was created to give our clients the opportunity to customize their experience to their taste for a complete experience of enjoyment and satisfaction. Our ultimate goal is to open various locations throughout the city of Miami and, perhaps, franchise the concept to other cities in the US”.
Ivanna Villanueva, the daughter of Luis Villanueva (a known entertainment industry entrepreneur in South Florida) and Evelyn Villanueva, received her degree in Culinary Arts from Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Miami, an institution part of Le Cordon Blue, a hospitality education center with 23 schools in five continents. Education from Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts focuses on hospitality management, culinary arts, and gastronomy. Established in September 2003, Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts Miami began offering classes to students in 2004 in a city with significant demand for these professionals, given the flourishing hospitality and tourism industry in South Florida.
The course work in Ms Villanueva’s degree imparts education in Gastronomy, exploring the study of food (both historic and contemporary), concepts of innovative food preparation methods, cultural meanings of food, what we eat and why, the physical and chemical properties of food, current health and nutritional aspects of the food industry, and much more. The degree also emphasizes skills in Event Planning and Management, a key area for this type of industry.
On the business side, the learning experience allows those in the program to learn from professional chef instructors and hands-on experience in both the front and back of the house. Le Cordon Bleu also teaches Restaurant management principles such as planning, scheduling, as well as basic restaurant layout and design and dining room management (service theory, concept styles, and levels of service). Besides operational elements, the degree also includes knowledge of Food and Beverage Management (controlling a food service establishment and a food service-based wine and beverage program, including, purchasing, inventory control and accounting). The degree Ms. Villanueva holds includes expertise in Food Service Operations (size and scope of the food service industry and core operational elements inherent in all food service operations)
Ms. Villanueva hopes to apply the skills learned as a small business manager in the hospitality industry. We wish her success and look forward to follow her development in a discipline that aligns with the trendy culture of food and beverages in American cities. https://www.cordonbleu.edu/home/en
In her free time, Ivanna finds comfort by volunteering at different charity organizations, such as The Missionaries of Charity a religious congregation founded in 1950 by St. Teresa of Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), also known as St. Teresa of Calcutta, an Albanian-Indian Roman Catholic nun and missionary. St. Teresa of Calcutta served the poorest of the poor in India. In 1981, she opened the home for the poor in Miami with four sisters. Today is one of more than 600 throughout the world.
The Missionaries of Charity is a profoundly religious organization that prioritizes the spiritual and material needs of the poor. The vocation “is to belong to Jesus, and to do that we must love and serve the poorest of the poor,” said Sister M. Inmacula, regional superior of the Missionaries of Charity in Haiti, the U.S., the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, during a recent visit to Miami. “We feed the poor because they need food, they are poor and you can see that when you look at them.”
With the help of volunteers, the Miami Missionaries assist those living on the streets surrounding the shelter located near Overtown, one of Miami’s poorest neighborhoods. One of those volunteers is Ivanna Villanueva, a young woman who dedicates her time to help “educate street children and run soup kitchens as well as other services according to the community needs. These services are provided, without charge, to people regardless of their religion or social status. Ivanna Villanueva says, “I was raised in a family who always dedicated time to charities not only in our community, but in many Latin American countries through organizations such as ‘America Developing Smiles’. I have taken this family activity as one of the most precious gifts in my education.”
The Missionaries’ soup kitchen is open every day except Thursdays and provides meals for about 300 people daily, mostly men. Most of those they serve are Christians but there are also people from other religious denominations. The shelter opens its doors at 8 a.m., when one of the sisters hands out numbered tickets. This service sits well with Ivanna Villanueva’s skills, learned at Le Cordon Bleu Culinary College of America, a hospitality education center. Ivanna helps feed the poor and when there is any food left over, the Missionaries go out to the streets and give it out to the homeless under bridges and other places in the city.
We certainly hope Ivanna Villanueva’s story inspires many young people to give time to local charities and community focused organizations. This effort not only helps people, but also helps improve the quality of life in our communities for all.
https://www.miamiarch.org/CatholicDiocese.php?op=Article_14727479956071
Ivanna also volunteers at The Lotus House in Miami, Homelessness is a disease of urban centers that affects the quality of life of all its residents and worsens the conditions of the poor, affecting their capacity to recover and lead productive lives. Miami is a city with thousands of individuals (close to 5000) without a permanent home, and one organization dedicated to alleviate this problem is The Lotus House. The Lotus House, according to its mission is an organization “committed to ending child and family homelessness in our country. We advocate for the human right and dignity of every child, every family, to a home as essential to their wellbeing and prosperity as food, education and health care.”
On Friday, June 15, The Lotus House organized a group of volunteers to help with activities to support and educate the women and children in their program. Volunteer activities help victims of homelessness to learn basic life skills (financial literacy, budgeting, basic cooking skills, shopping on a budget, and good nutrition) and additional skills such as, computer classes and job readiness training; health and wellness (exercise and healthy lifestyles); general programs (book clubs, sewing, dance, music, beadwork, and others), outreach work (follow-up and assistance to former guests of Lotus House) and donations drives. Volunteers
also help by performing maintenance of the organization’s facilities, where the program participants live and prepare for a more independent future.
Staff from the various companies of the SOMOS Group (SOMOSTV, SOMOS Next, SOMOS Distribution, SOMOS Productions, SOMOS Next and SOMOS Films), participated and led various of these activities. Group employees with various skills, executives, administrative staff, TV programmers and editors joined other volunteers for this worthy cause to improve the lives of their neighbors. Luis Guillermo Villanueva and Ivanna Villanueva led the SOMOS Group team. The Villanueva family participates and support many charities with time and financial assistance. Ivanna Villanueva, in addition to The Lotus House, devotes part of her time to organizations such as Boys & Girls Clubs of America and The Missionaries of Charity. In the words of Ivanna Villanueva “I was raised in a family who always dedicates time to charity not only in our community, but throw-out Latin American. This family commitment is one of the most precious gifts that my family has given to me.”