Beet. Chia. Cilantro. These are just a few ingredients Geraldine Maldonado uses to make her arepas. Lately, she has been fervently mixing and mashing, trying to come up with new recipes for Homemade Food Gallery, her food-art gallery startup.

Born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela, Geraldine studied fashion merchandising and nutrition at the Miami Institute of Art before moving to New York. Her day jobs, as a health coach and a visual merchandiser at J.Crew, have her mind in a million places, but she is still able to firmly focus on her true passion: cooking.

Geraldine preparing a Venezuelan feast