Is Resurrecting Irvine’s Career Impossible?
Originally published by Edible TV (edilbetv.net) on April 17, 2008.
Just when it seemed things could not get worse for Chef Robert Irvine, it does. After having his resume put under scrutiny by the press and having his profile removed from the Food Network web site then consequently fired by them, Irvine is being sued by Susan Nice, a St. Petersburg interior decorator for breech of contract. Irvine had been planning to open two new restaurants in St. Pete but it appears things are falling apart for the Dinner: Impossible star.
Even after revelations that Irvine had exaggerated his career many have remained fans of his. After all, colleges actually teach you to inflate your experience on your resume; it is understood that there are things that can be played up without actually lying. Despite padding his resume, one thing was certain, the man could cook. But not only is there a law suit, but Irvine has left a pile of fractured relationships and broken promises in South Florida. Although much of this may simply be a case of sharks smelling blood in the water, the fact remains that Chef Irvine has put himself in this position. Surely he can still have a nice career; after all, if there is one thing America loves as much as tearing down heroes, it is giving them a second chance.
For more on the St. Petersburg situation, check this story from the St. Petersburg Times.
Photo courtesy of Fox News.
Review: Food 2.0: Secrets from the Chef Who Fed Google
Originally published at Paper Palate (paperpalate.net) on May 22, 2008.
For most Americans the cubical is little more than a prison with bi-monthly paychecks and a nice 401K. They are shabby ersatz rooms of false walls covered in non-descript synthetic fabric with little to differentiate one from the other. Any given cubical could belong to a paralegal, claims adjustor, or travel agent. Not so for the folks at Google, the world’s number one web site.
Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin decided way back that their company would redefine the office environment for the 21st Century. Google employees enjoy a very loose (i.e. comfortable) dress code, amazing benefits, and they can even bring their pooches to work. Page and Brin are full of outside the cubicle thinking.
Take lunch for instance. The chief Googlers decided that the common model, half an hour to gorge on processed foods, was bad for productivity. The partially hydrogenated, high fructose diet of the average American is the root of our societal obesity crisis. Fast food drive-thru’s, all-you-can-eat buffets, and chain restaurants are the leading culprits in this epidemic. Again Google would be different.
Page and Brin sought out a chef to custom design the menu at the Google commissary so that workers would not be sluggish. The menu had to be healthy for sure, but it also needed to be more than that, it needed to be empowering. Chef Charlie Ayers’ brain food was considered a secret to the early success of Google. And everything that came rolling out of “Charlie’s Café” was free to every employee. Those years spent feeding the brains of Google have now manifested themselves into Food 2.0: Secrets from the Chef Who Fed Google.
Ayers’ innovative concept for food that not only serves the body but fuels the mind begins with what he calls the “Big O.”
No, not her, “Organics are not the only path to clean, smart food. But the Big O still reigns supreme,” he writes. A devotion to organic, locally sourced (150 mile radius) foods was but one of the values employed in the Google kitchens. Chef Charlie also incorporated elements of the raw food craze as well. His philosophy is not a strict raw food diet, which is a good thing.
According to Elizabeth Brown, a Dietitian, Holistic Chef, and Sports Nutrition Specialist who hosts Eat 2 Liv, a purely raw food diet is not necessarily a healthy diet. She recited a case she recently ran across of a young lady who had contracted candida, a rare thing for a raw foodist. When Brown asked the subject how she developed a condition that usually only stems from overconsumption of processed starches she informed her that she had recently cleansed her system. “By cleansing she got rid of good bacteria and reduced her defenses,” states Brown, “I like that people may be motivated to eat more raw foods but there is no ‘one way’ to eat.”
Ayers, too, is aware that raw food alone cannot suffice. Another big element of Food 2.0 is the use of fermented foods. He says yogurt, cheese, tea, pickles, and even beer are good for the gastrointestinal track by fighting microorganisms in food. One particular favorite was the recipe for kimchi that he received ironically enough from a friend named Nina Kim. Since I love this pungent Korean condiment I had to give it a try. It was perfectly bright and tart and zingy just the way it should be and it gets better everyday.
Nina’s Kimchi
Toss a large head of napa cabbage, cut in bite-size pieces, with 2 tbsp kosher salt, then drain in a colander for 3 hours. Rinse well, drain, and dry. Mix with 4 sliced green onions (scallions), and a handful of chopped cilantro, 1 tbsp each black and white sesame seeds, 1/4 cup rice vinegar, the juice of a lime, 1 tbsp sesame oil, and a tbsp (or more) sambal oelek (a condiment used in the Far East) in a nonreactive bowl. Cover and let marinate at least overnight (it gets better over a week’s time). This makes about 1½lb (675g).
Other notable staples include Chinese black vinegar, cheese-flavored oils, toasted hemp seeds, “uncured” deli meats, chutneys, and Ayers’ custom made elixir known as special red sauce #2. Special red sauce #1 is ketchup, organic of course. Another favorite on the Google campus is wheatgrass . . . as a shot. In fact they had to hire someone just to trim and grind 20 flats a day.
Ayers has moved on from Google as he is preparing to open his new 4900-square-foot healthy, fast-food restaurant in Palo Alto’s Town and Country Village called Calafia Café & Market a Go Go where he will continue to produce his smart food for the masses.
Ayers’ new book is revolutionary in its creativity and subject matter. It is more than just a cookbook; it is a guide to a new way of living. With 256 pages and full color throughout the hardcover will retail for $25 (American) and is published by DK Publishing (New York, NY).
Diary of a Wannabe TV Chef – PT 8
Originally published at Edible TV (edibletv.net) on February 6, 2008
This is the latest installment in a continuing series that documents my personal quest to become the host of my own cooking show. Since this is a relatively new “career,” there are no vocational programs or community college courses to prepare me for it. From what I have seen, the two most important elements in securing such a position are passion for food and plain old dumb luck. Born with a passion for food, I set out to make my own luck.
The Food Writer Returns
Toiling away for pauper’s wages at a BBQ chain that could best be described as blah is very depressing to someone that is used to working at higher-end restaurants. One day, while devouring the restaurant jobs in the local paper, I find an ad that is advertising three new magazines that are published by the local newspaper. Two of the magazines are lifestyle tomes. On a whim I send an e-mail to the editor letting him know of my past writing (one article for a similar magazine that paid $20). In the e-mail I include a link to my website where he can read some of my articles.
The next day I get an e-mail from him asking for a phone interview. By the time the interview concludes, I am a food and drink writer for Current Magazine and a Food and Travel writer for ‘Zalea Magazine. Each article pays $150. Current is published once a week and ‘Zalea once a month. If I am productive I can really make some cash.
I inform the BBQ joint of my new position and immediately my kitchen manager is nervous. She knows I will not be in her kitchen much longer. Before my first article makes it to print I leave the cooking job. I start picking up tables part-time at a national chain Italian restaurant to help fill in the voids between productive months and so-so months.
My first article is a study of what food defines our community and where to get the best examples. It is well received. I then begin writing articles on themed reviews – best pizza parlors, best late-night eats, etc. I venture away from food just a little by drawing on my contacts in Nashville. I do two interviews with musicians and one with a stand up comic, all of whom have dates upcoming in town.
Things were going well. Both magazine editors are happy with my work and they have even given me a nickname at the office, Big Love, for my ability to get my articles written before deadline with few errors that need editing. All this and I had yet to meet anyone at either magazine in person.
Finally, the day came when I went down to the office to meet folks. It was fun, I got the VIP tour, which included the press room where a giant printing press knocks off 75,000 copies an hour. I got my picture made for my first press pass. I had made it. To a certain degree.
I was now rubbing shoulders with the people I needed to meet to get somewhere in this town. The only thing missing? A cooking show.
Diary of a Wannabe TV Chef – PT 7
Originally published at Edible Tv (edibltv.net) on December 11, 2007
This is the latest installment in a continuing series that documents my personal quest to become the host of my own cooking show. Since this is a relatively new “career,” there are no vocational programs or community college courses to prepare me for it. From what I have seen, the two most important elements in securing such a position are passion for food and plain old dumb luck. Born with a passion for food, I set out to make my own luck.
Chef de Casserole
I had been working as a sous chef for this national chain restaurant for about four months when I read the ad in the local newspaper. It went something like, “Sous chefs needed for new gourmet market and cafe.” The new market was being opened by Mobile’s top (i.e. only) celebrity chef. This was a fantastic opportunity. The concept of the new market was intriguing – locally grown organic produce, seasonings and spices from around the world, fine wines and imported beers, and the most creative thing was frozen dinners made in house.
The other side of the building was an amazing hot bar and deli. The menu featured Southern staples like ribs and fried catfish at the country bar, Panko encrusted halibut and bourbon braised beef tenderloin at the gourmet bar, and fantastic sandwiches like the Southern style BLT made with romaine, apple wood smoked bacon, and fried green tomatoes.
I began my career at the market working in the hot bar making whatever the executive chef or the owner decided we would make that day. I preferred working on the gourmet bar because its menu changed everyday while the country bar never changed. The gourmet bar was where all of the action was. Sometimes these recipes were written down and were followed without derivation. Sometimes they were improvised on the spot like a Myles Davis trumpet solo. A jazz musician in another life I am drawn to improvisatory cooking. The gourmet bar often featured specials from the produce guy or the fish monger therefore we kind of just looked at what we had and made something up from there. It was a blast. What made it better was that I was no longer poor.
There was a job that the executive chef and the owner had been looking to fill. This person would at first work in the cafe kitchen preparing casseroles and such for the freezer department at the market next door. Once the holiday party and Mardi Gras ball seasons ended this person would then move to an off campus kitchen that they would run with a team of people to mass produce the frozen dinners and casseroles. We jokingly called this person the chef de casserole. We thought it was clever. Before too long my experience as a manager came to my new employer’s attention. Within six weeks of being hired I was being promoted. I would be the chef de casserole.
I worked through the holidays cracking out as many casseroles and frozen dinners as I could. The problem is that I was usually lucky to have four square feet to work with. The cramped kitchen was simply too small to get any real production done. Finally I was moved to the spare kitchen that had been purchased to aide in Katrina relief meals. This kitchen was huge. A bank of convection ovens and three 100 gallon steam kettles. There were no stoves yet, so sautéeing was out of the question but I did learn how to roast my mirepoix and Creole trinity.
Before long I was given two production cooks and a dishwasher. I began setting up schedules for casserole production and teaching recipes to the new staff. Things were going well or so it seemed.
One Friday afternoon the culinary manager for the company stopped by to let me know that the accountant had said that we could no longer afford to keep my kitchen open. The market was doing okay, but was not yet at a level to support the start up on my project. It had to be put on hold. Six weeks after having been promoted and just three months after being hired, my entire staff, myself included, were laid off.
To make matters worse I got laid off three days before my birthday. Happy birthday, huh? It was a bad time for the restaurant market in Mobile and I ended up taking a part time job as a line cook for a national BBQ chain. It paid little and was easily the worst restaurant job of my life. I spent my hours there thinking of how I could get out of the place. I went through the paper religiously looking for better jobs.
A few things looked iinteresting: oyster shucker down on the bayou, a temp job with a caterer making box lunches, and running the galley on an offshore oil rig in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico – during hurricane season. All of them sounded better than what I was doing but they were even worse paying.
It was at this lowly point in my career that I would once again have a newspaper ad dramatically change my life.
Diary of a Wannabe TV Chef – PT 6
Originally published at Edible TV (edibletv.net) on October 15, 2007
This is the latest installment in a continuing series that documents my personal quest to become the host of my own cooking show. Since this is a relatively new “career,” there are no vocational programs or community college courses to prepare me for it. From what I have seen, the two most important elements in securing such a position are passion for food and plain old dumb luck. Born with a passion for food, I set out to make my own luck.
Greener Pastures
Wintzell’s Oyster House has been in operation in Mobile since 1938. What began as an oyster bar with six stools is now a four restaurant powerhouse that is unique in character and the standard bearer for what a true Gulf Coast oyster house should be. I escape from the Fern Bar to become a part of this remarkable piece of Mobile history as an associate manager.
Wintzell’s managerial formula is that there are no FOH (Front Of House) managers and no BOH (Back Of House) managers. Rather, all managers work both aspects several times a week. My stint there allows me to work at three of the four stores as well as the commissary which makes a good deal of the gumbo, jerk chicken chili, and other signature Wintzell’s dishes. I also get my first taste of catering.
My employment there also has me working notable events like the Fairhope Arts and Crafts Festival, which transforms the small artist colony of Fairhope, AL into a 200,000 visitor carnival of well-to-do art lovers from across the country. I also spend a week at the original downtown location helping during Mardi Gras. For those who do not know, Mobile, not New Orleans, is the home of American Mardi Gras, having celebrated it for nearly half a century before some engineer decided to erect a city at that peculiar crescent shaped bend in the Mississippi River.
Though the money is great and the experience is good, I have little time left to work towards the ultimate goal of becoming a TV chef. I have not written an article since going into management, over a year in fact. In the summer of 2006, I leave the time-consuming field of restaurant management to become a sous chef for a national chain Italian restaurant.
The chain has a wonderful dedication to quality ingredients and making things from scratch. All in all it is a pleasant experience with one exception, I am dirt poor. On the bright side I do have time to work on my web site and to start writing again. Towards the holidays of 2006, I see an ad that will have a profound effect on my quest to become a TV chef.
Diary of a Wannabe TV Chef – PT 4
Originally posted at Edible TV (edibletv.net) on August 8, 2007.
This is the latest installment in a continuing series that documents my personal quest to become the host of my own cooking show. Since this is a relatively new “career,” there are no vocational programs or community college courses to prepare me for it. From what I have seen, the two most important elements in securing such a position are passion for food and plain old dumb luck. Born with a passion for food, I set out to make my own luck.
“Once more unto the breach . . .”
My first night back in a commercial kitchen was memorable.It is a Friday night and the restaurant is on about an hour wait. I am training and therefore have plenty of time to take in the sights and sounds of this old friend. Tickets are ringing up, the expo (expeditor – person in charge of organizing food from the kitchen and sending it to the dining room; a mediator of the line) is barking out orders for a FOD (fish of the day) that is going on 23 minutes, servers are stealing each other’s salads in a failed attempt to salvage a tip at a table they have neglected, and the dishwashing unit is beeping because it needs more sanitizer. Heaven.
One of the servers comes into the kitchen with a Hawaiian Ribeye his customer has sent back. Here is the dialogue as it unfolded:
Chef: Why is she sending this steak back?
Server: She said it tastes sweet.
Chef: Of course it tastes sweet, it’s a Hawaiian Ribeye.
Server: She said she had no idea that it would taste sweet.
Chef: How did you describe the dish when she ordered it?
Server: I said it is an 18 ounce choice ribeye steak with Hawaiian flavors.
Chef: What are Hawaiian flavors?
Server: Uh . . .
Chef: What do you think we do, shave a live Hawaiian over the steak when it is done? It is an 18 ounce choice ribeye steak marinated in teriyaki sauce, honey, and pineapple juice, served with two slices of grilled organic pineapple! Because you didn’t take the time to learn your menu, I have to throw away a $37 steak!
The rest was unsuitable for print.
The restaurant is the last place that a boss can actually get angry at employee when they do something stupid that costs the company money. In an office setting, the chef would have been headed for anger management classes. In a kitchen, the chef is the law, the employee slams a few things down and mutters furiously about what a jerk the chef is. Three or four f-bombs later and all is forgotten.
As the months go by, I begin to feel my stride again. I am handling copious amounts of work on Friday nights as it is the Lenten season. Since many Catholics give up red meat during Lent, the pantry station is getting slammed with salads. It baffles me, if you have given up red meat for Lent, why are you going to a steakhouse for dinner?
New opportunities to learn keep popping up. For Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, we do away with the menu and replace it with a lavish buffet. Buffets are new to me so I get my first real taste of batch cooking. The owners start having chef’s specials – each chef gets to contribute. Mine is an appetizer – Southwestern Spring Rolls with smoked chicken, corn salsa, and cabbage served with a spicy ranch dipping sauce
The chance to crosstrain arises, so it is time to pick a new position to learn. I have worked the fry station at many restaurants so it can wait. I can go toe-to-toe with anybody on a broiler so there is no challenge there, thus I begin to learn the sauté station. If a kitchen were a rock band, sauté is the lead singer, the one everybody is looking at. The guy who gets the chicks. My skills grow each day I work in this kitchen.
But, I am just a part-time chef, here. I work Friday and Saturday nights only. I still work at the call center for my primary income. I am only a few months away from my five-year anniversary and the guaranteed pension and fully vested mutual fund that comes with that. It would be foolish to leave before then.
Then came Hurricane Ivan.
Just 25 miles from slamming Mobile, the deadly hurricane inexplicably changed directions, hitting the other side of Mobile Bay and pummeling Pensacola, Florida. It is now known in these parts as “the last minute jog.” Though our neighbors in Baldwin County and in Florida were in dire straights, Mobile was up and running, sort of.
The call center was on the same power grid as a fire/rescue and police station, so we were open for business just 36 hours after the infamous jog. Not everyone was so lucky. For that reason the company had decided to feed all employees and their families with whatever food was in the cafeteria. The catering contract at our site was in limbo. The old company had left the day before the storm and the new company was not scheduled to come in until the next week. They needed someone to run the kitchen.
Do you want to know one of the reasons why I love the culinary arts? Look in the eyes of a six year old child that has just gone through one of the most destructive forces of nature on earth, is now living without electricity, air conditioning, plumbing, or any creature comforts for the first time in their life and then hand them a pancake with a smiley face made out of chocolate chips.
The day of my fifth year anniversary with the rental company I mail out a dozen copies of my restaurant management résumé. The first interview does not come for two months. It is with a sports bar chain famous for their waitresses’ skimpy outfits. The interview process goes well. I am very eager to escape my cubical nightmare and return to my passion but the salary offer is an insulting $23K a year. I have to think carefully before declining the offer. The thing that really killed the deal was that management was forbidden from dating the very attractive servers in the skimpy outfits. Seriously, if you are only going to pay your managers chicken scratch there has to be some fringe benefit.
A few more interviews and finally the offer comes that makes the career change worth the chance. A well known fern bar is looking for managers. The training lasts 10 weeks in either Kansas, Nebraska, or Florida and pays a much more attractive salary. Overnight my pay doubles and my life changes forever.
Diary of a Wannabe TV Chef – PT 3
Originally posted at Edible TV (edibletv.net) on July 26, 2007.
This is the latest installment in a continuing series that documents my personal quest to become the host of my own cooking show. Since this is a relatively new “career,” there are no vocational programs or community college courses to prepare me for it. From what I have seen, the two most important elements in securing such a position are a passion for food and plain old dumb luck. Born with a passion for food, I set out to make my own luck.
Building Credibilty
So, here I was the proud author of a cookbook that could only be found in one place, the web site of a T-shirt company. But that was better than most people can say. 4 Star put the cookbook in with their regular advertising, but if I wanted to get the word out about the cuisine I had created, I had to learn the publishing game with a quickness.
Armed with a sack full of “. . . For Dummies” books and an inbox crammed with self-publishing newsletters, I began to sell myself, figuratively speaking. A new bi-weekly newspaper had gone into print around Mobile and they had a guy (their food editor) who did restaurant reviews, but no one who wrote cooking articles. I sent an e-mail to their senior editor inquiring about the possibility of my filling that role for them.
Why shouldn’t I? After all, I was author of Amigeauxs – Mexican/Creole Fusion Cuisine and a veteran of the restaurant industry. The editor asked me for an article to show my stuff. I had noticed that the style of writing preferred by this paper employed sarcasm, so that was how I wrote my article which explained how béchamel was not some fancy French food, but a part of our everyday lives. That article earned me the fat sum of $20 (US) as it was quite humorous. Upon publication it was well received. Enough so that the food editor decided that a cooking article should be part of the regular food section. Unfortunately, he assigned himself to write it. After all, twenty bucks is twenty bucks.
Regardless, I now had my first professional writing credit. I was now a freelance writer. Go figure. I soon got the attention of the web site, Global Chefs, who commissioned me to write an article about self-publishing. Just that quickly I had gone from aspiring food author to self-publishing expert. Once again, go figure. That is how this journey to become a TV chef has progressed. Lots of hard work with little to show for it, then bam! (no pun intended) a whole gaggle of good fortune.
Soon interest in my cookbook and food writing cooled off. It was becoming apparent to me that I needed to get back into a commercial kitchen to really start building credibility. Mobile’s economy was rebounding and new restaurants were starting to pop up. I soon found myself the pantry chef (this position handles salads, desserts, and appetizers) at a swanky new steak restaurant in a fast-growing, affluent suburb of Mobile. It was time to work on my chops.
Diary of a Wannabe TV Chef – PT 2
Originally posted on Edible TV (edibletv.net) on July 11, 2007.
This is the latest installment in a continuing series that documents my personal quest to become the host of my own cooking show. Since this is a relatively new “career” there are no vocational programs or community college courses to prepare me for it. From what I have seen, the two most import elements in securing such a position are passion for food and plain old dumb luck. Born with a passion for food, I set out to make my own luck.
The Cookbook
They say that admitting you have a problem is half the solution. If only that same math could be attached to achieving a goal. The exact date is not known to me but sometime during the year of our Lord, two thousand three I had an epiphany that not only did I want to be a chef, but I wanted to do it in front of a camera.
The problem was I was not working in the food industry. For the past three and a half years I had been working at a 1-800 call center for a rental car company. In fact, I had not cooked professionally since the spring of 1998. In December of ‘98 I moved from Nashville back to my hometown of Mobile, AL. I thought with my experience I would surely be able to get a job in a restaurant. After all I had worked in a dynamic city and had excelled in what was a booming restaurant scene.
The problem was that Mobile’s restaurant scene was fading. My experience was useless as no one was hiring. I tried starting my own Internet business, I worked at a cultural exhibit, played a few music gigs, but still the restaurant jobs eluded me. When the call-center opened a few miles from my home it seemed I was doomed to life in a cubical.
Without a commercial kitchen to vent my culinary artistic whims I did my best in the tiny apartment kitchen at my disposal. This was a challenge as the oven was so small that standard cookie sheets would not even fit in it. Never the less I cooked, honing recipes, learning techniques, doing anything I could to improve my skills.
Through this period I had created several recipes that are best described as Mexican/Creole Fusion. Those recipes included my Creole White Chili that my company had twice prepared in the Mobile Chili Cook-off. The dish was well received. I began compiling these recipes in the hopes of writing a cookbook.
Through my days as a wannabe Internet entrepreneur I had become familiar with a company called 4 Star T-shirts & More! who did print-on-demand T-shirts, hats and other cloth materials. They were adding a new print section to their store. On July 23, 2004 my first cookbook, Amigeauxs – Mexican/Creole Fusion Cuisine went on sale via their web site. It wasn’t professional cooking but it was better than nothing. Most importantly I had taken my first step towards building credibility.
Diary of a Wannabe TV Chef – PT 1
Originally posted on Edible TV (edibletv.net) on July 2, 2007.
In the coming months I will be documenting my personal quest to become the host of my own cooking show. Since this is a relatively new “career” there are no vocational programs or community college courses to prepare me for it. From what I have seen, thanks to shows like A&E’s Biography and TFN’s Chefography it appears that the two most import elements in securing such a position are passion for food and plain old dumb luck. Born with a passion for food, I set out to make my own luck.
Origin of Wannabe TV Chef
I guess it all started when I was about five years old. My maternal grandmother was down for a visit from her home in Spokane, Washington. My father and brother had taken my grandfather on some manly adventure that I was apparently too young to appreciate. I was left to the women of the house who had decided to prepare a large batch of biscuits for when the men returned.
I watched diligently as my mother sifted flour into a large bowl. She added a few other dry ingredients and finally buttermilk (ick!). She then set about stirring them together. My sisters had pulled out three medium sized cast iron skillets and began smearing bacon grease on the inside of them. My grandmother set the oven for 350 and they each chatted happily. Looking back it was a true Rockwellian moment.
Tired of feeling like the fifth wheel I whined my way into the kitchen. My grandmother took me under her wing most likely to spare the other girls from my childish banter. She set out a large clump of biscuit dough and showed me how to knead it into a would-be biscuit. She then produced a small iron skillet and together we greased and filled it with the mass of dough. I only made one biscuit that day compared to the dozens prepared by my mother and sisters but it was by far the biggest and that was good enough for me.
I could not wait for it to come out of the oven so that I could savor the biscuit I had made. I remember how golden the top was and I can still hear my mother telling me that I had to let it cool a little or I could burn myself. How did it taste? Beats me. It was like over 30 years ago. That is a long time to carry a memory. The important thing is that this one episode introduced me to the joys of the culinary arts.
As I grew older I grew bolder, at least in things gastronomic. When I was roughly ten I got a Presto Magic Burger Maker for a gift. This was the ultimate in freedom. A hamburger was my favorite meal and now I could have one whenever I wanted. It did not take long for me to discover the different burger flavors I could create by experimenting with the various spices in my mother’s cabinets. After that I began creating with my mothers leftovers, specifically a leftover roast was a favorite canvas of mine. I called what I created goulash. It started with cubed pieces of roast beef or pork simmered in barbecue sauce but soon I was braising meat in many strange liquid concoctions, most all of them fiery.
After high school and during college I worked a few restaurant jobs as a busboy, dishwasher, and sandwich maker. But it was after college that I was introduced to restaurant management. I became a manager trainee with Domino’s Pizza. I learned many things that I still keep with me today during those years with the country’s number one pizza delivery company. Chief among them is my love of ethnic food. I began a friendship with another employee, a dental school student from Syria. From him I first learned the flavors and spices of the Middle East.
To this day Mediterranean cuisine is one of my favorites. A few years later, while trying to earn a living as a musician in Nashville I found that restaurant work offered me the opportunity to make money while maintaining a flexible schedule for my musical endeavors. I ran a steak restaurant in a swanky neighborhood, worked as a line cook at a Tex-Mex restaurant, a server at an eclectic mall eatery, a baker, and even a hot dog vendor at college basketball games.
At this time in my life I had friends from different parts of the world. I learned traditional Mexican food from an LA bass player, Indonesian food from an exchange student from Jakarta, African food from a tennis player raised in Nigeria, and tons of other recipes from watching cooking shows on cable. Graham Kerr, especially, had a significant influence on me.
In the 90’s I took a trip to Chicago that would have a profound impact on my life. Not only did I try real Chicago pizza but I also I learned of a cable cooking channel called the Food Network. Can you imagine my joy in finding a TV network just about food? It was like the mother ship had landed.
Soon I found myself engrossed in the creations of Emeril Lagasse, Ming Tsai, Bobby Flay, and the incomparable Wolfgang Puck. I learned of food trends and restaurant concepts and ultimately it all began to make since. I was meant to be a chef, specifically a TV Chef. I mean, why else would I have been given talent in both the entertainment field and the kitchen right? Destiny. Like Abraham Lincoln rising from poverty to become President, or Albert Einstein overcoming bad study habits to become the most important figure in physics, or a simple farm boy like Luke Skywalker becoming a Jedi Knight. Destiny.
I have dedicated myself for the last four years to this goal. First, I wrote a cookbook. Next I began cooking in competitions, soon after I was writing cooking articles for magazines and online sources. Then I left my job at a car rental company to return to professional cooking. Now I am a full time food writer and I have created a web site entitle what else? WannabeTVchef.com
I am a foodie with a vision, a dreamer with a plan, and master of the spatula. I am Stuart Reb Donald, Wannabe TV Chef.
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Watch Stuart Reb Donald
on Everyday Gourmet.
Don’t Wait to Honor Mom
Sunday is Mother’s Day. This, along with Valentine’s Day, is the busiest day of the year in the restaurant industry. As with V-day I am baffled at the number of people who believe the best way to show your love for someone is to spend 2 hours sitting in the lobby of a fern bar waiting for a table. How about some numbers – 80% of the people who are taking mom out for her special day will do so between 11AM and 2PM Sunday. That is crazy! That means tens of millions of people trying to eat at the same time. What is wrong with taking her out Saturday night? Maybe take her shopping Saturday afternoon and stop by her favorite lunch spot.
Not to mention the message that sends to mom, “I know that you cooked me virtually every meal for the first 18 years of my life, but the one meal a year I am supposed to provide for you involves hanging out in the foyer of O’Apple Tuesday’s Garden and Cantina if you want to collect. Sorry I just don’t have time to cook for you myself.”
Nice logic – We can spend three hours at a chain restaurant, but I don’t have time to make something out of Rachael Ray’s 30 Minute Meals.
The rub – if you refuse to cook then by all means take mom out to eat – she deserves it – but do you really have to take her after church like the other 27 million people in the country?
Food for thought.
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