To take simple ingredients then cut them, pound them, mash them, slice them then to apply seasoning and heat to create an amazing dish just seemed to easy to me.
I was five or six at the time and loved the thought of creating meals in the kitchen. I saw my Granny throw bones in a pot with some vegetable and a package of soup mix (lentils, barley, peas and orzo) and I would have the most amazing lunch when I was little. Watching her in the kitchen was my favorite way to spend time with my grandmother Martha aka "Mattie". I watched her cook, bake and create all with love and seeing her smile when she saw how much we enjoyed the meals.
My mother hated cooking, she despised it with a passion and often said her ideal house is one without a kitchen but she made some amazing baked goods; butter tarts, mincemeat tarts, Matrimonial cake (aka date bars) cinnamon buns, baking powder biscuits, fresh bread. I saw how she hated being in the kitchen and just the tediousness of creating a mess and having to clean it up, spending all day over a hot stove.
My father although he did not cook much in my younger years was an amazing cook. He was always in charge of the big feast dinners such as Christmas turkey or Easter ham. As I grew older and took more of an interest in cooking we made roast rosemary chicken and roast prime ribs together. He encouraged me to experiment and explore my pallet, never hesitating to go get the ingredients I wanted to use for a new creation I had. Together we would go out each summer and source fresh fruits from the orchards for canning and consumption, we would can freshly caught salmon and he would give me free reign on trying out new ideas with what we gathered.
Over time I developed a real passion for food and creating and had decided fairly young that I wanted to be a chef, to have my own restaurant and create food and memories that pleased the masses. My school studies always focused on food; if there was a Social Studies project I always chose the food aspect of it, when it came time to take electives all food courses were my first choice including working in the school cafeteria. Some people chose this as an "easy" course to take but not me, I chose it with the intention of being a sponge and absorbing everything I could. I asked questions, I stayed late, I volunteered for every thing I could. I wanted to be the go to guy even when I was just a student, I felt that this was my calling and I was the one person who knew where they were going in their life.
I started working in a professional kitchen at the age of 17 as a dishwasher at one of my favorite restaurants, Mother Tuckers Restaurant (now called Tuckers Marketplace), where they specialized in steaks and prime rib. I continued to show up early much like i did in Foods A/B class but this time I would sometimes show up 2 hours early just to peel carrots or help weigh prime rib roasts that just arrived on delivery. I was as green as I could be in a kitchen but my heart and desire was there. I didn't let being a dishwasher discourage me at all, I figured that I got my foot in the door and it was all on me to earn the opportunity to work my way up.
My career had started and I was determined to see my goal through.
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