After more than two decades of professional experience in the food industry, advancing from a line cook to executive chef, catering manager, and culinary marketing director, Zoe Baez now excels as a bilingual AI strategy and systems adviser for revenue, brand, and operations in food and beverage through her consulting firm built for hospitality businesses, Tasting Social.

In this capacity, Ms. Baez helps food and hospitality operators that need clarity, structure, and forward momentum as well as help with growth decisions. She creates content and streamlines workflows for industry clients, tailoring service to individual client needs for revenue growth, branding, positioning, and operational systems. In addition, she helps clients identify their unique market positioning and assists with menu development and business strategy, all through AI-powered tools that simplify these businesses without removing its uniqueness. Utilizing her 20 years of experience in the industry, and fluency in English and Spanish, she works with a wide range of chefs, caterers, event planners, and food entrepreneurs.

Attributing her success to the stories and personal experiences of those she has encountered throughout her professional journey, Ms. Baez was born and raised in Puerto Rico, which helped fostered her passion for the culinary arts. She pursued an early culinary arts education there and later completed an externship in Madrid, Spain to develop her expertise. Launching her career as a cook at a San Juan-based restaurant, she subsequently earned a bachelor’s degree in culinary arts and chef training from Universidad del Este La Plata in 2008. She then worked as a pastry chef at two restaurants and became an executive sous chef and executive chef across three others, during which she also ventured into marketing and branding strategy.

After relocating to the United States in 2014, Ms. Baez worked in various hotels and fine dining restaurants, and held roles as a cooking instructor at the Baltimore Chef Shop, marketing director at Crafting Memorable Dining Experiences, visual content creator at Culinary Craft Workshop, and brand lead for restaurants in upstate New York and Maryland. On the marketing side of things, she crafts brand narratives and helps organizations communicate to their target audience with authenticity; she also bridges cultural and linguistic gaps to expand their reach in diverse markets. Utilizing these skills, she has taken great pride in mentoring and helping professionals advance in their careers.

In addition, Ms. Baez has lent her services as a catering manager in the nonprofit sector, where she was able to assist Spanish-speaking communities in accessing needed services and support through the Franciscan Center of Baltimore.

Looking toward the future, Ms. Baez intends to create and help more people establish greater space for themselves within their industries and achieve their professional goals. She plans to expand her mentoring work across the technology, culinary, and hospitality sectors as her schedule allows. She is passionate about pursuing certification in artificial; intelligence and sharing this knowledge with the hospitality community to help businesses gain a competitive advantage. Additionally, she has a personal culinary dream of owning a boat and hosting Masaki dinners from that vessel.