conchchowder

Grew up in the Mary Lou Pastry Shoppe in Columbus Ohio (Yes, Mary Lou is still alive!)

Worked in my grandfathers bakery 'till I was 14

Got my first job at the Heidelberg in Dania under Gunter the uber chef and learned at 15 how to make sauerbrauten, kalbshakse, spatzle, and curse in German

Worked at an in-store bakery for the rest of high school

Worked at Marina Bay and 15th Street Fisheries under Mike Hurst and learned his secrets 1) A table is a rental unit...the more you rent, the more you earn. 2) desserts take up rental time so keep them off the menu but have them available and make them extraordinary and expensive to offset the cost 3) Atmosphere and quality...we got to have the first legal alligator in the country brought in by the DNR guys. Oh my god! What the chef did to that gator was amazing!

Worked for TGIFridays for 7 years best crew I've ever worked with. Catered with Edibles on Las Olas. Apprenticed under John Goldfarb at Pastabilities and made fresh pasta for the pioneers of New World Cuisine such as Alan Susser and Kevin McCarthy. We went bust when Muriel Hemingway and Stephen Crisman (of Sam's Place in NY) bout ZEMOS in Miami to run it down...from that point on to get ZEMOED meant a client wasn't going to pay...I started my own catering company and then moved to Asheville NC. I worked for some QSC restaurants and for some owners who should have never been allowed to sign a lease. I'm now EC at Café Soleil. It reads just like a Bourdain novel...