Seeing Is Believing

Allow us to introduce you to Celina Tio, a James Beard Best Chef/Midwest for her work at American Restaurant in Kansas City. She’s about to open her own Kansas City restaurant, Julia(n), which she has named after Julia Child and her grandfather, Julian Rodriguez. The tattoo you see on her arm reflects a part of her heritage. "I have a few tattoos but the one you can see in the photo is my most recent. I got it in Bangkok when I was there last year cooking at the Four Season's World Gourmet Festival. It is a circle of life, sprouting a Chinese lotus flower. You often see this image represented in Thai art. Because there’s a lot of Chinese culture and art in Thailand, I wanted to incorporate my Chinese heritage with my first trip to Asia. I've gotten a lot of comments on it. My other two are on my back, and I vowed that I would be able to see and appreciate any other tattoo I got, so I got this one on my arm.