“There are so many challenges to being a woman in the culinary industry,” Anna said. “You don’t know how many times we go to events and set up tasting stations, and my sous chef is a guy, and they come up and say, "‘Hey chef,” talking to him. You’re automatically, as a woman, not given the same respect and the same recognition.”

Anna appreciates where she is now and what the future holds. She believes in helping others, like younger female entrepreneurs. “You have to reach back,” she said. “Whether she’s an immigrant or she’s not. The next generation of women that are coming up behind us, it’s our job as women, that they’re better than we are. That they surpass anything that we’ve done. We reach back and we help them.”