Alumni | Bell TowerJuly 30, 2024

Former Nurse Followed Winding Road to Current Happiness

Written By: Judith Hansen

Former Nurse Followed Winding Road to Current Life

 

Angela Perkins describes the route she took from Westark Community Collegein the 1970s to her current life as a rollercoaster. It’s that and more.

Since attending Westark, now the University of Arkansas - Fort Smith, Perkins has been a cardiovascular ICU nurse, a neonatal ICU nurse, a landman in the oil and gas industry, a culinary student, a competitive chef, and the executive chef and proprietor of a bed and breakfast in North Canton, Ohio.

But the part of her life she likes to talk most about starts with coffee in the morning and a quick review of the pantry to answer the question, “What can I make to share with my community today?”

Perkins is the owner and chef of Poggio Amorelli, a bed and breakfast inn in Ohio. The B&B has connections to Poggio Amorelli winery in Tuscany, Italy. The building was once her husband’s family home, and the B&B opened officially in 2014, according to a recent story in the Canton Repository.

After 27 years in nursing, including stints at Sparks (now Baptist Hospital) and St. Edward Mercy (now Mercy Hospital), Perkins looked for something different, and she became a landman. After moving to Ohio, she spent seven years traveling the country doing title work for gas companies.

“Then I just got an idea about having a bed and breakfast,” she said. At the same time, she wanted to share her lifelong love of baking.

So, she said, “I just jumped feet-first into the culinary industry.”

Perkins attended the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, and the Culinary Vegetable Institute in Milan, Ohio. She studied pastry making at the French Institute at Chicago and traveled the world, learning from chefs in France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and the Canary Islands. She sometimes makes food for the Princess cruise line.

“I love cooking,” she said. “I’m still learning because there is always something new to learn.”

She was a Top 80 finisher for MasterChef 7. A follower on LinkedIn, who urged viewers to vote for Perkins, wrote, “I am a big supporter of Angela … because of the love she pours into communities and through the delectable food she gives to those (in) need.”

When Perkins talks about “food to share with my community,” she isn’t just talking about food for guests in the B&B or the frequent giveaways on her Facebook page. She is speaking about the mission to which she and her husband feel bound: feeding the hungry and unhoused, especially veterans, and extra-especially those with children.

Angela Perkins, 66, said she and her husband, 71, bought a 40-foot RV a few years ago.

“We fill it up with fruits and breads and pasties and cookies, all homemade, and we find these people, humbly and respectfully approach them, and try to help. We’ve been blessed to be able to do this for the last few years. And it’s just a goal for me: How can I make someone else’s life better?” she said.

“I LOVE making cookies and cupcakes because those things bring a smile to people. So I’ll get up and make a couple of dozen batches of cookies, get them decorated and cured, and the next day go out and hand cookies out to people.”

She does more traditional B&B things, too. She holds cooking classes for children 5-18 and for couples and small groups of people. She holds date-night dinners in the Poggio Amorelli dining room.

In the winter, Perkins and her husband will go to Europe, and “I’ll meet more chefs and learn more things, and bring them back, and teach more people. It’s an adventure,” she said.

Perkins, who attended City Heights Elementary and Van Buren High School, remembers her time at Westark as a crazy time.

“I was going to school, and working two jobs, and trying to balance time and family, and trying to find time for myself,” she said. “If I could talk to someone in school today, I would tell them to turn around and take a deep breath and find some time to be good to (themselves). If you get wrapped up in different things, you end up losing yourself. The key is to find that balance. Do what you need to do, but take time to be still, take a deep breath, and find time to love yourself so you can do that for others.

“And if I had to do it all over, I’d – You know what? If I had it to do all over, I wouldn’t change anything because that’s what made me who I am today.”

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