About Kimberly

I’ve never been very good at living life the way I was “supposed” to.

I’m Kimberly Andrade, a chef, traveler, mentor, and the founder of Chef’s Soulful Compass.

For more than 30 years, food has been one of the threads running through my life. I graduated from Johnson & Wales University and built a career in hospitality that eventually led to more than 20 years as a private chef.

That career took me into homes, estates, private events, and some pretty extraordinary rooms. I’ve cooked for high-profile clients, professional athletes, entertainers, families, and people with incredibly specific expectations. Along the way, I learned that succeeding as a private chef requires far more than knowing how to cook.

You have to know how to read a room. How to communicate. How to anticipate needs. How to recover when something goes wrong without making it everyone else’s problem. How to understand boundaries, discretion, service, money, and your own value.

And perhaps most importantly, you have to learn how to navigate a career for which there really isn’t a traditional roadmap.

I learned much of that by doing it.

But food was never my whole story.

Travel has been just as important.

I’ve visited 22 countries, but some of the experiences that shaped me most came from actually living outside the continental United States.

In 2000, I moved to Haiti and lived there for a year. Nearly two decades later, I did it again, this time making the Caribbean home for five years. From 2018 to 2023, I was based primarily in the Dominican Republic, with six months spent living in St. Thomas.

Living somewhere is very different from visiting it.

You have to figure things out. You learn how people actually live, eat, communicate, celebrate, and solve problems. You navigate unfamiliar systems and cultural differences. You build relationships. You get things wrong. You adapt.

And life doesn’t stop happening just because you’re somewhere beautiful.

I’ve navigated career changes, family responsibilities, relationships, reinvention, and the ordinary complications of being human while living abroad and moving through different cultures.

Those experiences changed the way I travel.

I’m interested in the places beyond the resort gates. The neighborhood restaurant someone insists you have to try. The music coming from somewhere down the street. The person you meet who completely changes what you thought you understood about a place.

That’s the kind of travel I want to share with other people.

Eventually, the pieces started fitting together.

For years, my life could look disconnected on paper.

Chef. Entrepreneur. Traveler. Expat. Psychology graduate. Hospitality professional. Mentor. Someone who has started over more than once.

Today, I see the connection.

Chef’s Soulful Compass is where those experiences come together.

Through GROW, I help chefs navigate the private-chef industry with the kind of practical guidance I wish had existed when I was building my own career. It’s not just about getting a job. It’s about understanding the business, presenting yourself professionally, recognizing your value, and building a career that actually works for your life.

Through EXPLORE, I create intimate group travel experiences built around food, culture, connection, and actually experiencing a destination. I’m not interested in simply moving people from attraction to attraction. I want you to feel where you are.

And both sides of my work come from the same place:

Experience is meant to be used, and then shared.

I’ve spent decades collecting mine.

Now I get to use it to help other people build careers, see more of the world, and perhaps imagine a few more possibilities for their own lives.

Food. Culture. Connection.

That’s my compass.

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