 Hello everyone!!
A warm hello to everyone here.
A little about myself, I was born and raised in the printing industry, worked in my fathers print shop for 20 years. Then in 1992 Hurricane Andrew struck South Florida and the shop had to be completely rebuilt. After rebuilding and hanging on for another 4 years we closed the shop. My wife (girlfriend at that time) moved to Pennsylvania in 1996 to help out with the care of her Grandmother who was going through chemo-therapy at the time. Sadly she passed away in Febuary of 1997.
Finding that after working in a family print shop for so long and trying to get a job in one in the Pittsburgh area was not for me. It was hard to be at the bottom rung of a profession that I grew up in, I decided printing was no longer for me. I worked several different jobs along the way... movie theatre projectionist for a 20 screen theatre, Office Max sales associate, reprographic operator and a few others... But, nothing I could see myself doing long term.
In January of 2001 my wife was pregnant with our first child!!! Now it WAS time to find a new career. As my wife and I were talking while I was in the kitchen cooking, she was asking me what I like to do most. I gave it some thought and had no real answer for her. But I kept asking her to hand me some items so I could finish cooking (Chicken Marsala), she looked me right in the eye and said what about going to a cooking school.
For the next three months I researched the schools in the area... and finally decided on International Culinary Academy in Pittsburgh. One year later, with a LOT of hard work and study, I graduated with a perfect 4.0 GPA (the only one out of 50 students to boot!).  | 
11-07-2003, 10:39 AM
