When Tracy Sherva was growing up, her mom Jacquelyn, a Downers Grove elementary school band director, wasn’t into cooking.
“On the days when she worked, she was beat by the time she got home,” remembers Sherva. “So, from the time I was in 5th grade, I helped her make dinner.”
That’s where Sherva discovered she “loved creating things in the kitchen and trying something new,” she says.
“I liked seeing how different ingredients come together in a recipe–very much like a science experiment,” she explains. “When I started experimenting in the kitchen in the late 1960s and early 1970s, there weren’t a lot of convenience foods on the market yet.”
As a result of this experience, Sherva became a prize-winning cook as early as junior high. She received the Crisco Award for outstanding home economics student in 1970 and the 4-H Club Grand Champion award for her international meals project at the DuPage County Fair.
Sherva’s interest in cooking got a big boost the summer after she graduated from 8th grade, when she and her family vacationed in Hershey, Pa. They went on Hershey Co.’s simulated factory tour–an audio-visual tour that showed how chocolate is manufactured, as well as other areas of the company.
“I hadn’t known before that food companies had test kitchens or that you could work in one testing recipes for a job,” says Sherva. “That’s when I decided, as a career, I wanted to work in the test kitchen of a major American food manufacturer.”
After her sophomore year at Purdue University, Sherva got her wish–an internship in Kraft Food Inc.’s test kitchens.
Now 49, Sherva is grocery sector group manager in the Kraft Kitchens, located in the company’s Glenview offices, down the street from its Northfield headquarters.
Sherva’s team tests recipes and writes package directions for products in the company’s grocery sector, including ingredients used in Halloween treats such as Kraft caramels, Jet-Puffed marshmallows, and Baker’s chocolate.
QDid anyone mentor you?
A. Over the years, starting with Karen Jameson, my adviser at Purdue, I’ve had many fabulous mentors.
Karen was absolutely amazing. She helped me figure out what courses to take. When I told her I wanted to work in a company’s test kitchen, she put me in touch with a Purdue graduate who worked in the Kraft Kitchens.
She taught a class in food communications that I found very valuable, particularly when I worked on Kraft’s Food & Family Magazine.
Every year I return to Purdue’s campus to teach the food styling portion of that class.
Q. When you interned in the Kraft Kitchens, was the experience what you’d expected?
A. Yes. I washed dishes, cleaned a lot of ovens and did a lot of food preparation.
Nobody likes to do grunt work. But doing the chopping and preparing is where you learn the most. My favorite part is interacting with people about the food they’re eating.
It was very challenging. We wanted to do the recipes exactly the way consumers would do them at home.
With grilling recipes, that meant climbing out the window onto the lower-level roof of the downtown Chicago building where our kitchens were at that time. That way we could test recipes on grills like consumers would at home.
Q. You’ve spent almost your entire 25-plus-year career in the Kraft Kitchens. How do you keep yourself from becoming bored?
A. Every day is something new. I love sitting in on focus groups and reading comments from consumers posted on our Web site. And I never tire of reading about food and creating recipes.
Sometimes it’s challenging to get a recipe to work the first time. Usually we nail a recipe in two to three tests. If we’re going on test four, we move on. This happens about 10 percent of the time.
Q. Is gaining weight an occupational hazard?
A. I believe you can eat wonderful things as long as you know how to eat in moderation. It’s all about balance.
I work out maybe once a week in the gym here at our headquarters. I weigh exactly what I weighed when I started at Kraft as a summer intern.
Q. How has your personal life fared, as you’ve moved up the ladder?
A. I was a single mom for seven years. I gained a deep appreciation for what it’s like to be a working mom and have to get dinner on the table every night.
I’ve remarried. My husband, Burk Sherva, is senior director of marketing for an Oracle consulting firm.
Weekly I spend about 60 hours in the kitchen–50 at work, 10 at home. I make dinner at night and bake on Sundays to mail treats to our two children in college.
Q. What’s the best advice anyone’s ever given you?
A. My mom was a musician. She had a saying: “Life is not a dress rehearsal.”
You need to figure out what’s important to your soul and live it every day.
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Step by step
2006-present: Grocery sector group manager, Kraft Kitchens, Kraft Foods Inc., Glenview
2001-06: Group manager, consumer relationship marketing, Kraft Kitchens
2000-01: Division manager, Kraft Kitchens
1993-99: Brand kitchens manager, Kraft Kitchens
1984-93: Home caterer and freelance food consultant, Kraft Foods and Quaker Oats Co.
1982-83: Supervisor, Kraft Kitchens
1980-82: Product specialist, Kraft Kitchens
1979-80: Research home economist, Kraft Research and Development Center, Kraft Foods
1979: Bachelor’s degree in dietetics and foods in business, Purdue University
1978: Summer intern, Kraft Kitchens, Chicago
1977: Summer intern, Kraft Kitchens
1974-76: Part-time bank teller, Citizens National Bank, Downers Grove
1973: Part-time retail salesperson, Pint Size Petites, Lombard
1969-73: Baby-sitter
