JUST THE
Two Of Us
On the day Chef Carma Thompson was born, her father Chef Michael Thompson was in the middle of a banquet for 1200 people. He quietly excused himself and went directly to the hospital to be there for her birth. He stayed just long enough to kiss the Mother and feed Carma her first bottle before returning to the banquet not being noticed as absent by any of the guests or most of his kitchen staff.
Five days after Mother and child were released from the hospital
they were out dining at their favorite Chinese restaurant enjoying Ma Po Tofu and showing off the long-awaited future chef, Carma, with all the members of this restaurant’s staff.
Twenty-two years later, Carma graduated from the World’s most prestigious culinary academy, The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park New York, where her father graduated with honors 33 years prior. Carma is now working and learning in a Michelin-starred restaurant in the food capital of the World New York City.
For the next 20 years,
Carma moved with and visited her father around the United States and across the globe as he held positions as Executive, Corporate, and Private Chef in six American cities including New Orleans, Oklahoma City, Telluride, Scottsdale, Palm Springs, Honolulu, New York City and all over the Hamptons and five foreign countries including Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Turks & Caicos, Bermuda & Russia.
He worked in Highend restaurants such as Emerils in New Orleans,
large multi-restaurant resorts such as Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic & Beaches in Turks & Caicos where he oversaw 12 themed restaurants and in some of the most prestigious homes in America.
During this time Michael cooked for 12 presidents & prime ministers, politicians, celebrated athletes, stars of stage and screen as well as business moguls from many industries including banking, real estate, and import & export.
Michael wanted a better
future and lifestyle for his children
or his children and never wanted them to enter the culinary rat race: working long hours for little pay, constantly traveling, working all major holidays and seasons, missing birthdays and anniversaries, and never having adequate time to raise a family.
Carma’s parents spent much time, effort, and money sending her to private grade school, and high school as well as a prestigious university all with the hopes of her becoming a surgeon
She excelled in all subjects, laying the groundwork for a career in medicine
such as biology, physics, chemistry, and math. She even volunteered at Presbyterian Hospital in her free time. After spending her freshman year at her kitchen table during the initial COVID outbreak she became disenchanted with the medical industry and after an epiphany announced one morning that she wanted to go to culinary school. That Spring Carma enrolled in The CIA. This opened up a whole new future for Carma, one that she was very familiar with after a lifetime with a chef as her father.
So Carma excelled in all culinary subjects both in front and back of the house and doing her externship at the three-star Michelin, Thomas Keller restaurant, Per Se. Carma finished her culinary studies and went directly to another Michelin-starred restaurant, Essential by Christophe presided over by Executive Chef owner Christophe Bellanca who came to fame as chef de cuisine of Joel Robuchon’s L’Antelier.
Carma is still at work at Essential by Christophe developing her culinary skills to hopefully become a private chef in New York City’s high-net-worth community and possibly work with her father, Chef Michael in the future before he retires.