How the hell did I end up in this biz???

School to me was an enormous opportunity, I was so excited to get into school & start a career. Up until this point I was a kid, I graduated high school, screwed around for a few years.. I went to college & HATED IT! I dropped out just before spring break & drove to Savannah Georgia with my dear friend Dave (rip) we spent possibly one of the greatest weeks of our lives (@ least I know it was mine) living in a house loaded with 13 University of Pennsylvania Girls***** (maybe one day I will fill you all in ... )

I spent so much of my time during this period of my youth trying to figure out what it was that I was going to do for the rest of my life. I loved the social aspect of the restaurants, the camaraderie of playing Rugby, the love interests that I had during this time were so important to me & I hope that those women know that! So many of the girls that I dated during this time were truly subjects for my culinary explorations.. I loved to cook for them, i had a blast doing it & the best part is that I wish they could see me now & stop by for a meal.... so AC, MBOB, AF, Thanks!!

My Family... An amazing group of people..

• Da ~ The Irish & Italian, Creative Genius, loves good food! 
• Mom ~ Midwest lady, cool as hell mom, great cook, still uses wondra for her sauces! 
• Big Sis, fun chick, cooks & loves the classics like Gram showed her! 
• Mick & Tom, the "lil" bros, gotta love em', late night fried bologna sammies to La Vigale. 
• Gram ~ You my dear led one hell of a life & I hope that my girls have 1/2 of the adventure that you did. One thing I loved was your passion for the food, its history & its importance in our lives.

My days as a Busboy working @ "keegan's" in Narberth.. hahahah! I can still hear the old waitresses "Hun, go clear off table 21 & get 34 their salad, come awn hun, hurry up" at the end of our shift.. (i was 14) we'd have to go downstairs to meet with Old man "keegan" where he would ask us how much we made in tips & then he would hand us a piece of paper so that we could figure out our taxes.. !!!! hahahahah.. I still laugh about this.

Hey its where I started.. again I go back to the chefs in the kitchen, watching these guys. Smoking cigs out back, weed @ the end of the line, a shot snuck in here & there & god.. the waitresses loved them (or @least just flirted with them so that they could get their food faster!!)

The mystique of the kitchen & the love for it all went a step further when I was a wee lad.... I took a road trip with my buddies... we ended up in NYC for St. Patrick's day. we stopped @ one of the greatest pubs in NYC.. 85th & amsterdam, An ICONIC Irish Pub to see my old babysitters.."Lexi & Babs" my buddies laughed, we stopped by, we got in.. WE DRANK... (Shhh... it was illegal, shit I was only 18) but that wasnt it.. NO it went a step further......it was when I went to look for my Lexi & Babs & someone said.. "They're downstairs"... I walked the narrow steps towards the, GULP, basement of a NYC establishment, (Illegal to even think about doing in some places). I can smell the tobacco, the stale beer, the scent of a meal, I can hear laughing, loud talking, cursing...(remember.. This is St. Pats day in NYC) I pressed my hand against the bottom door & it creaked open... Now I dont know exactly what I saw, but I do remember there was a large group of people in a smoky basement, a storage area of some sort with a few tables & lots of bar stools..

(i now recognize this as a break time in-between 2 shifts) 

As I opened my mouth to speak... & my old babysitter came rushing over & began pushing me up the steps. "Whoa Whoa... no need to be down here..... You should never come downstairs" I was quickly rushed upstairs & said good bye to... where does this lead me in my journey on my road to be a chef????

I WANT TO KNOW WHAT THE HELL WAS GOING ON DOWN THERE.....

Future Chefs, Please Report

I decided years ago... 1992 to be exact that I was going to make a career out of what I liked to do for friends. Yup, Cook... I was going to Culinary School... so here goes! I contact The Restaurant School in Philadelphia... & the decision was made.. I am going to culinary school.

I chose to do this before all of the Media & Tv & Celebrity-ness of being a chef was out there, this was a purely creative decision, with a slight bit of horny 20+ ism because I saw these chefs in the restaurants that I worked, & the ass that they got from the waitresses & bartenders was crazy! they went nuts for these sweaty, foul mouthed, scarred armed, beer swillin' while they work guys. Let me tell you this.. I loved to cook for my lady friends... I really liked to cook for my lady friends & they seemed to like when I did that

All the great packets start coming in the mail. The information is overwhelming... come on come on, just let me in the kitchen, let me start my new career... I am a creative person, let me loose to CREATE!!

First day of school, pick up knives, (I opted out of the school suggested F-Dick knives & my wonderful parents, yup the same ones who casted my broken wrists, drove me to and from the hospital as a young lad for being... well exactly that, a young lad.. I had more stitches as a kid from playing & I mean playing harder than most kids ever did.. but yup... THEY JUST BOUGHT ME KNIVES & I was proud of my German Forged Henckels) & receive our text books, wait... where is my text book... ohhhh, here it is... its a photocopied black spiral bound from staples group of pages that have a plastic cover to it... hold on here.... oh but wait.. didnt i just get student loans for a $22,000 education?

oh well more into that as this saga unfolds! 

I go to my first "class" a truly unique group of people, 24 to be exact from all walks of life. We've got in no particular order (or maybe even in this pic!!)

The Smokers.. Please note that I was not allowed to have facial hair, but RS was...wtf

the soccer mom

the new career lady

the stoner

the hottie redhead

the right outta goretti girl

the aristocrat

the italian stallion

the $loaded$ kid

the artist

the culinarian

the paisano

the artist

the purist

the cutie very talented (hot) 

we are all going to begin this journey together, but guess what folks... Ive got my own agenda

We receive our class schedules & curriculum form the president & then head into our new environments. we begin by meeting the Chef Instructors 

Chef Gerry ~ Great dude, amazing knowledge, didnt like me, passed away a few years back

Chef Gary ~ Knowledgable chef, Hated me, ultimately 15 yrs later he liked me

Chef Colin ~ Welsh chef, not bad, probably didnt like me, but I found out later he hated me too

Chef Richard ~ This guy I liked, classy, kind of a dick, but in a very "i know what I am doing" way

Larry ~ Cornell Grad, Papa is in the Culinary Hall of fame (so Ive heard), we got along well

Listening to these guys talk was the best, I loved to hear the stories & what they wanted from us... it was very inspiring to me as a 20+ year old. these guys were CHEFS, These guys have been there, in the trenches, look @ their arms, some burned & scarred from years of working the line. their stories were even more inspiration for me to take control of where i was & to own this fucking school.

As I looked around the room, i realized that I was going to be with the people for the next 2 years, spending days & nights with them, studying with them & working with them & i also realized that in a short time we were all going to be going for the same jobs.... WHOA.... we were all going to be going for the same jobs.. I need to pay very close attention to this.... 

After this time we all went outside to the "smokers area" and started to talk, Where had we worked before, what our plans were for the future, were we married, single, attached.. who's banging who, which chef was a dick. But while this was all going on I kept thinking about the comment that I had made to myself before.. "we were all going to be going for the same jobs". 

Ya know, before this day I knew that I wanted to cook, I knew that I wanted to be in a kitchen, I wanted to be a chef... but @ the end of this day I realized that this was soo much deeper than this, I was gonna be good @ this, I am a leader, I can be the" head of the brigade" I can rock this business. It was a feeling that was so deep inside of me that I could GRAB it. 

Im gonna stop for a bit now & come back to all of this.....

Because this my friends is "The Thyme of My Life"!