Teaching passion, with flavor

Dynia Mariano is a well-trained culinary expert who has worked in every restaurant position at some point in her career, but the most important lessons the baker learned were in her grandmother’s kitchen.

The Philippine-born SUNY Adirondack Culinary instructor is inspired by her grandmother who, while raising eight kids, earned extra money for the family baking cakes in her rural home kitchen.

“I try to incorporate my Filipino background in terms of flavor,” Mariano said. “You have to cook from what you know.”

For Mariano, that incorporates a wide knowledge base. She was raised in New York City, where she spent more than 20 years of her life.

When she graduated from high school, she wasn’t sure how to select a college. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do, other than that I wanted to cook,” she remembered. “So I said, ‘Maybe I can be a baker, just like my grandma.’”

She enrolled in pastry arts courses at the Art Institute in New York City, a nine-month program, finished and jumped into the workforce.

“I noticed that I liked being able to share the knowledge I had with my colleagues,” she said. “I thought, ‘I wouldn’t mind teaching this, so I guess I’ll look into finishing a bachelor’s degree.’”

Mariano enrolled in The City College of New York and, she said, “It skyrocketed from there.”

She competed with the college at Javits Center’s hotel competition two years in a row and was awarded a @beardfoundation scholarship that granted her access to events that included such attendees as Tyra Banks and Martha Stewart.

She graduated, worked in hotels and the restaurant industry and was hired as food and beverage manager at DoubleTree by Hilton New York Midtown Fifth Avenue. “I was learning more about customer service, customer interaction and event planning,” she said.

Mariano and her husband moved to North Carolina, where she worked at JB Duke Hotel overseeing four outlets — restaurant, room service, cafe and front of house.

“When the pandemic hit, everything just halted and that’s when I decided I needed to figure something else out,” Mariano said.

She started an online business, Sergiross Patisserie , making Filipino treats using her background as a classically trained chef. “I enhanced the flavors and made things more creative,” she said.

Mariano and her husband, a Lake George native, decided to return to New York, but didn’t have an interest in returning to the rush of city life. They instead moved to Saratoga Springs.

In SUNY Adirondack’s Culinary program, she teaches classes in dining room, garde mange classes at Seasoned.

“I love being able to share the knowledge and teachings I’ve learned. The success of a student is a reflection of those teaching them,” she said.

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