Rasyidah was born in Manila and raised in sunny Singapore by her Filipino mother and Indonesian father, in a household that was never short on delicious home-cooked meals. She watched her grandma and her dad cook, and soon started her own kitchen experiments, but instead of culinary school she ended up in college studying logistics management.

Her first job out of college took her back into the culinary world; she worked first as a server and then in various front- and back-of-house positions before applying to the Culinary Institute of America. Her first internship out of CIA took her to San Francisco, and eventually she found her way to Seattle — first to RockCreek Seafood & Spirits and then to Eve in Fremont, which she ran for six years before starting a new chapter as a cooking instructor at the Pantry.