Who are you?

[shroomgirl]

There have been some interesting posts within the past couple of weeks on this forum. As a long time member I know most of the oldtimers and through the years we've shared information as well as friendship. Professional courtesy is what makes Cheftalk different from most sites. Differing ways of working is the spice of a kitchen, learning someone's trucs is always a good thing......
We all as caterers bring something to the table, there's been a few instances in the posting, that feel like I'm reading a pissing contest.

So to get a sense of who is posting on this forum I'll start with a brief introduction.....
Hi, my name is shroomgirl.
I've lived in Sacramento California, Little Rock, Memphis, New Orleans, DeRidder, Baton Rouge and for the past 13 years St. Louis.
Cooking has always been a passion.
For 15 years I raised my three sons and after divorcing moved to St. Louis....
At this point, personal cheffing worked well for us. Cooking during school hours and being home to take care of the boys after school. The income afforded us a suburbia existence. Weekends were spent foraging with wild mushroom hunters, cooking in parks for large groups of people. Many times on camp stoves. About this time I started joining boards for professional culinary groups working on programming and events. Teaching cooking classes was another offshoot that brought in clients and extra income. One of my students was an orthodox jewish man who recieved a weekly CSA (bag of produce grown on one farm....call it a mystery bag). So each week we cooked for three hours with three sets of pots and pans (kosher kitchen) with local gorgeous produce.
Around this time one of the programs I was working on was an organic shiitake farmer talk. We met and I went to visit her farm for a weekend.....after that I met some farmers that asked for my help connecting them with restaurant chefs.....from there came MO chapter of Chef's Collaborative. We opened the first growers markets in STL with the mission statement of "teaching people how to cook local food". Designed series of farmer-chef dinners & classes, held numerous events featuring chefs cooking local food, taught series of classes in schools with chefs-rds-farmers.....taught culinary camps.....consulted with universities and elementary schools on local food/farmer's markets.....
Started off-site catering, as personal chef clients decreased catering increased. Culinary Stage Manager-director for major annual events with top chefs from all over the US.
Somewhere in there I've been on the MO govenor's dept of agriculture task force, a couple of university sustainable ag. boards, etc....
So for many years I cooked local food in the middle of the street with butane burners, no running water, no refrigeration....
Recently I've gotten into breaking down whole heirloom pigs, not only is it fiscally great it's fun and challenging to use the whole pig.
I bake and make pastries/candies, write for a mydrid of publications and each Wednesday during the season make a local farmer dinner for the farmers driving in 2+ hours to market.
Culinary school is not on my resume, other than being on a decom board (advisory board), consultant and talking to classes for the past 7 years. I've used externs, interns and students for events...

There are gaps of things I didn't learn along the way.....it happens when your self taught. Some times not having a preconception of "the way it is....." has been very beneficial.

Cheftalk has been a lifeline, to find "your people" who don't think you're crazy because you are passionate about food, preparing food, sourcing food, serving food, talking about food alot....way more than the normal human wants to........

So, my culinary compatriots what's your story?
Please remember why we show up here......and respect each other, this is the professional section of Cheftalk, amatuers have other places to post.

[foodpump]

Meh. It's a lazy Sat. morning, and I have time, so here goes:

Started off washing dishes for local restaurants. By local, I mean very local, as in Greek rest's in the center of the universe--Saskatoon, Sask. After highschool I took a 1 yr culinary progaram at a local C.C (community College) and after graduating realized I didn't know much about cooking, so I saved up for a year and took of for Switzerland.

Huge culture shock, but one thing that really made an impression on me was that all staff in any Rest. or Hotel were divided into two groups--those who did an apprenticeship and those who didn't. After ayar of jobbing around I found myself a nice hotel and signed off on a 3 year cook's apprenticeship. Until youearned the respect of everyone in the kitchen, apprentices were the lowest of the low, pay was sub-survival, and everyone worked split shift. In spite of language difficulties and age (most apprentices started off at age 15) I recived my 'papers" as an apprenticed cook.

From then on I worked 1 yr contracts at "good" hotels in Zurich. Mind you even though some of those hotels did and still do enjoy a 5 star reputation, some of those kitchens were nasty. Hotel "X" on the Parade Platz, a 5 star had no ventilation sytem what so-ever, huge sucker of stove--over 10 meters long, but no ventilation system, no fire suprssion system, and the icecream freezer belonged in a museum --never saw one that worked with a salt-water solution before....

Then I toodled off to Singapore to enjoy the weather. Those guys are even worse work-aholics than the Swiss--no such thing as 5 day work weeks or annual 2 week vactions. Lots of banquets and big-number parties. Competition between hotels was fierce, matter of fact competition in any business was fierce, and I wanted to hang up my own shingle, so after 4 years I headed to Vancouver.

Worked for year for a hotel here, getting to know the local scene and then in '97 hung up my own shingle as a caterer. We did everything from corporate to weddings, to school hot-lunch programs. But after 10 years of all-work, no play, we decided to sell off the business and take a sabatical.

In the summer of '07 we opened up a smaller business, one that just us two could handle-- a small cafe and artisan chocolate place.

[chef.ESG.73]

For me it was a simple choice to become a chef.

My father was fresh off the boat from Isreal he had to quit school in fourth grade to help support family. So when I was 12 and I hope this doesn't get me in any legal trouble. My father had my mother photo copy my birth certificate and type in a new birth date and then photo copy it with new birth date stating I was 16 so I could get working papers and get what we thought would be a part-time job, maybe ten hours a week after school. Well I got a bus boy job at one of those long time standing family resteraunts was open for 40 years. I instintly admired the kitchen guys attitudes they were frigin crazy, drinking, doing drugs, smoking on the line, remember the early 80's in the kitchens(crazy)..so I switched to dishwasher still at age twelve fortanetly I looked older, now its not that forunate, lol. I started prepping food by thirteen and by fourteen I was full time cook and could careless about school, all I wanted to do is be in that kitchen, thats it, I new were I was going to be for the rest of my life!!
I was working so often I started to skipping school to work more, to learn more. Several of the cooks went to another resteraunt and I followed suit. By this time beleive it or not I was a freshman in high school for my forth year, yes a 4 year freshman. Finaly my father said hey this school thing realy isn't working out for you (no sh-t). OK I admit he wasn't the best adviser, he did the best he could..So I left school for good started taking jobs and would switch jobs everytime I would feel I wasn't learning any more.Then I got a head chef offer by a friend, I was 18 and married with a son on the way..I took the job and did very well at it, a great fish resteraunt right on the beach.From there I took on a few hotels as Executive Chef.I decided because of the no education facter I wanted to learn every aspect in this field. After hotels I moved to Miami to get some fine dining experience and became asst. chef for some great fine dining resteraunts and great chefs. Moved back to MA then fosussed on catering for years, and then decided to take on jobs in more of the corporate feild to learn the business aspect of this thing we do, you know were do these numbers come from, what to do with them, how to make budgets, contracts, and what all that means, and so forth. Once I got an undestanding for that stuff.I went right back to being a chef again but in a
new aspect colleges and universitys(way to much fun, loved it, just sayn)
Then I went to my last and G-d willing final company.Were I decided to become a Corporate(nitwit) Chef.My job was to go across the east coast as a fire fighter meaning if a place was about to loose the contract I would go smooth over the client, and get the next contract signed. Not to sound like I have a big ego but I was 100 percent on over 19 locations saved..The funny thing about this job was when the VP would introduce me he always said this is chef Eric he's a graduate of so and so college, because he diidnt want people to get mad that they went to college and they worked for me, a drop out. But what happened was I became what I despised the most a corporate robot working 24/7, it was not me, I'm a chef and always will be, I love serving clients great food..If you ask someone how was the wedding, they always reply the wediing was great, food was great.or the wedding stunk the food s-cked..Its all about the food, not the actual celebration that decides if an event was good or not..So after all that I now own a fantastic personal chef service/catering company....newdreamcatering.com--Design Your Way

I have been in this business for 23 years, I am 35 and never regreted it.
Except maybe for the fact that spellcheck saved me more than one job,lol
I was a punk on the weong road, who couldn't get out of the 9th grade, to some who owns his own profesional business, only because I chose to...
I know longer make others rich by working 90 hours a week getting paid for a lowsy 50 hours and a 6 figure salary that if you broke down hourly the bus boy was making more me, now I do it for myself, and so can you, if you choose to!!

Life by design G-d Bless

ok I have a highlite fetish, doesn't make me a bad guy, just one who likes to get his point across....

This is just my opinion, not fact:
This may rub some the wrong way(not my intention), if your reading this and your uneducated or just dont want to go to college, dont give up on yourself and dont let people put you down , it will take alot of hard work and you will have to put your time in, but you can become extreamly successfull. If you just choose to be.
Always remember:
Whether you think you can or you think you can't , your probably right.. Becarefull of what you think!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!