I got my introduction to restaurants early in life. At the age of 15 I answered an ad in the paper for a dish washer at a small Italian restaurant. I worked weekends, in the beginning, and the owners liked my work, so I wound up cleaning the restaurant afternoons after school, and wound up doing other work as well. The one owner started me preparing mozzarella and provolone cheeses for pizzas, and then slicing pepperoni. Half my pay went to my parents to help at home.
From there I went to another restaurant, where I started learning cooking on the burger grill, and worked my way to the dinner grill. I can remember a chef at a restaurant in an Oklahoma City hotel, where I thought I may expand my education in foods, tell me I should apply to culinary school in France. Right, how is a kid like me going to afford such an undertaking. And then the Navy came along, and my education was on hold.... sort of. Thanks to the Navy (no, not in the galley) I was able to get exposure to the cuisine of a number of countries, including the Philippines, Japan, Vietnam, as well as many restaurants on the West Coast.
When I came back, and was released, I went back to work at one of the restaurants I worked in, and worked my way up to head cook, and paid my way through college. I guess a love of food can grow. I began subscribing to Gourmet, Bon Appetit, Les Amis du Vin, and began reading everything I could about food. A career and demands outside of food curtailed much of that, until the past few years. Semi retired, I have begun rebuilding my kitchen with ingredients, and watching the programs on Create. I love watching Nick Stellino, Ming Tsai, and several others. And then I found Michael Smith, a chef from Prince Edward Island, and his philosophy of 'cooking without a recipe', just letting the ingredients and your imagination take you where they want you to go. It's not only healthy, its fun.
So, what do you like about cooking and food?
