I wanted to be a chef for as long as I can remember. I remember in 1st grade I did a thing on " when I grow up" funny true story, when I was 10 years old I made my dad take me to a book singing by Jeff Smith for his 1st book the frugal gourmet. I still have a picture of me sitting on his lap, I know now what he must have been thinking.
I really liked Jeff Smith back in day; history with food was a nice show.
what was a his helper name ?
A guy I worked with was a dishwasher at the The Chaplains Pantry in Tacoma ,WA
Craig ?Originally Posted by steeley
Ah yes Craig at the time i thought he had a sweet job .
and looks like he left the cooking field and poor Jeff passed away in 2004.
I actually wanted to be an astro-physicist lol. My parents were not that supportive... My grades were good enough to get me into any Polytechnic course that I wanted and so they made me do a Diploma food science and nutrition instead. 2 years through, I kinda got bored cause it was kinda easy to score (3.7 GPA throughout) so I decided to do something more challenging. Switched to chef's school(got my ass busted for that), got my diploma in culinary skills and started my life in the kitchen. Working in a kitchen for me, is much more challenging then any desk bound job. And I enjoy the challenge.
I started as a dishwasher. After high school I set out to be an art teacher. After receiving all in-completes my first semester (it was the 70s) I decided to get a cooking job. Traveled the country for years cooking and finally settled back home. Then one day I got a bug up my a$$ and said to myself, "I think I want to be a fireman". So I did that for 10 years while holding down three restaurant jobs. After 10 years my pension was vested, I yanked it and plopped it down (and every other penny to my name) on my first restaurant.
This may have been asked a thousand times but how did you get your nickname and do they call you salty at work?
O another interesting similarity between us I went to art school and then went back to the kitchen.
Some friends call me Salty. Some Scott. In the kitchen it's jeffe.
I had a T-shirt with a picture of a cranky dog pirate complete with peg leg, eye patch etc. After a hot summer shift I removed my cook's shirt to reveal the salt marks left from perspiration on the T shirt . Someone commented, about the "salty dog" on the shirt. The moniker seemed to fit and I've using it ever since.
Saltydog was taken on the Knife forums so I used my gaming tag Idiotking. My friends who've I met through gaming refer to me as "King". It's funny when we're in public and people are referring to me as king. We get some looks.
I've been cooking a long time. My father was a hotel chef growing up and I moved around a lot because of it. I always took a cooking job growing up because it was just kind of something I knew how to do and the pay is decent for a young kid. I guess for the longest time I didnt get too serious about cooking since I had that teenager "I dont want to follow in anyone's footsteps" individuality mindset. Then one day it just clicked that it was indeed my passion so I went to CIA instead of just ******* around in ****** kitchens. Now I work exclusively in high end fine dining restaurant and sacrifice my young adult life for my career; moving forward as hard and fast as I can. You have to be a bit of a masochist to adopt this lifestyle, but you slowly acclimate to it; now I cant work any less than 10 hours a day without thinking I have half a day off and get restless. Now work is the only place I feel truly at home, my river to anyone who's read siddharthra. My sanctuary is on the butcher block sawing veal heads in half and on the line cooking meat and fish as fast as I can in an oven as hot as I can get it.
If you want some inspiration, search for the marco pierre white videos on youtube where he is cooking a series at Harveys.
A close chef friend of mine is named King Bishop. The fourth no less!!! Coolest name ever...?
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