 In 2010 McLeod graduated from Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts and has consulted for leading food companies like Viva Food Group, Yeenin Frozen Foods ,and Contessa Premium Foods, where she spent most of her time in the test kitchen transforming gold standard recipes into commercially viable convenience meal concepts.In 2011, McLeod entered her first food competition and lead the Contessa culinary team to win the 2nd place People’s Choice Award at The University of Houston Frontier Fiesta Chili Competition.McLeod has been actively involved with several charities in Southern California (UNICEF, Habitat for Humanity and GRID Alternatives) and she has said giving back to her community has been what she considers one of her greatest accomplishments.