Kara Simmons always loved cooking but never thought about it as a potential career.

She was a good student in high school and felt pushed towards international business.

Then two years ago, during a break in her MBA, a friend asked her to cook for him.

“Hafid James was preparing for a bodybuilding competition,” she said.

“He needed five high-protein meals a day, and didn’t have much time to cook.”

The 28-year-old didn’t have much time either, as she was working as assistant to the Ombudsman and at Docksider’s part-time. Still, she happily helped out, using knowledge gained from college nutritional courses.

Then Mr James posted photos of her meals on Facebook.

“Everything changed,” said Ms Simmons. “I got all these requests from people asking me to cook for them.”

She couldn’t immediately oblige as she only had a home kitchen to work in and it “didn’t meet health and safety requirements”.

However she did some research and saw opportunity. She could only find one other healthy meal catering service in Bermuda.

“I asked my professors at the University of Florida about it, and they said it wasn’t good to leave a fledgeling business during the early years,” she said. “They urged me to get it going and then look at completing my master’s.”

And so Kara’s Kitchen was born, in January 2015.

She now cooks out of the kitchen at Rosa’s for 40 to 50 clients each week. Most of her clients are busy people looking for healthy meal options.

In exchange for the space, she provides a healthy menu for the restaurant. A ‘skinny’ cake with only 100 calories and a vegetarian chilli are among her offerings.

The menu for her clients changes weekly, but might include an egg-white pizza with whole-wheat crust for breakfast, salmon with blackberry sauce, curried brown rice with mixed vegetables and herbal cabbage for lunch and balsamic grilled steak topped with mango salsa for dinner. Meals average around $9.95.

“When I was little my parents, Maureen and Eugene Simmons, ran the Gunpowder Tavern in St George’s,” she said. “I remember sitting in my highchair asking the staff to make me grilled cheese sandwiches. I loved the pace of the restaurant, and I loved the way the family was around me. The restaurant closed when I was about six.”

It was around that time that she started cooking with her mother.

“She is an amazing cook,” said Ms Simmons. “She taught myself and my four older sisters to cook.”

Her interest turned to healthy cooking after her father developed diabetes.

“Diabetes runs in my father’s family,” she said. “I went online and learnt as much as I could about cooking for diabetics.

“Later, I taught diabetic cooking classes for Community and Cultural Affairs. I just loved teaching people and helping them find healthy meal options.”

She quit her job with the Ombudsman and scaled back her work at Docksider’s to focus on Kara’s Kitchen.

“It was a bit scary leaving solid money to take on something where the money fluctuates,” she said.

“I still work at Docksider’s in the evening. Sometimes I am there until 3am. There’s not much time for sleeping right now and if I’m sick, the business doesn’t run. I do 95 per cent of the work with my family helping me.”

She said the biggest challenge was finding balance.

“I want to offer the best quality and product to our customers,” she said. “It gets to be a lot for me to answer 60 people’s e-mails each day, and source and prepare meals. I am so grateful for Rosa’s and all the help they give. I could never have done it without them. Sometimes in life you get pushed in a certain direction and you go with it. I am very happy to be where I am today. I am pursuing a dream right now.”

And she’s not done with her master’s.

“In a few years I’m going to revisit it,” she said.

In the meantime she’s facing off against other rising chefs in the City Food Festival Chef Competition on Monday and Wednesday. The annual event takes place at Pier 6 from 5.30pm to 8.30pm.

For more information e-mail karaskitchenbda@gmail.com.