I admit Adam and Eve probably didn't dine on foie gras and have libations such as Chateauneuf du pape, but I bet God did! Only our creator (literally) could create such masterful delights.
As I begin this blog, I feel it necessary to own up to all of you, shed my dignity, unclothe my ego and show you my stark naked self (not literal).
I am not a trained french chef, nor am I trained chef from a community college, or do I have any diploma with culinary in the title. Confession One: I am a graduate of Southern Methodist University with the meaningless degrees in Political Science and Russian Area Studies. Sorry mom and dad for wasting your money!
I am a culinary novice so to speak, well may bit a more than that now, having climbed to executive chef of my catering company, Go Gourmet Catering.
Yes, that sounds a little odd. ("Climbed to chef of my catering company? Huh?") Disclosure numero dos! I started this company along with my wife in June 2001 before the world as we know it was so @$^# up. (the good ole days) I was not a chef but as stated in my bio, I loved food. Now here is the boring part. Fast forward if you like, but I must share, or my journey will make no bloody sense.
My family had a big bad ass business which we sold to a big bad ass NASDAQ company. So for awhile our family was rich, I was a brat and a douche and we lived like a low rent Kardashian or upmarket Beverly Hill Billy. Your choice for frame of reference. Well readers digest version, no matter how much money you have it can go fast if you are stupid, or surround yourself with thieves and crooks.
So as you can guess this doesn't have a happy ending. Family money is shrinking and I had to get off my ass and do something. My awesome wife, who works like she is not going to have money to feed the family if she does not get the next sale, was a super awesome pharma sales rep. She worked all over DFW (Texas y'all). As awesome as she was, she had no sense of direction. And for me with no direction in life, became her chauffeur. (Yes, this is before we had google maps, we had mapsco folks!) One day a light bulb went off. Or maybe she just hit me (probably deserved it). I noticed a pattern. She set appointments for lunch and breakfast and snacks and dinner programs all day long. We would have to go to restaurant pick up the food and bring it to clinics and doctors offices. She did this every bloody day! (yawn /boring), but that is how she sold and apparently a lot other people just like her. So I had this crazy idea, how about I start a company that focuses on catering to people just like you, there must be a lot. Well, let's just say we found a niche.
Fast forward. Sorry y'all, you still have to read more for context. I will just give you the meat and leaves the bones for another day. We hired chefs, got a big bad "A" commercial kitchen and with a a few thousand dollars made a million dollar business in 5 years, with really no clue what the hell we were doing. Remember no experience!
Another fast forward. Remember that great recession thing. Yeah that one, not such a good time for us. Budgets and layoffs in our niche business meant company collapsed in half in a few years. Meant debt, layoffs for us and just a general shite (british for shit) time. (Oh yeah I am English, pardon the late introduction)
So I had a come to Jesus moment. I was faced with two options, close down and look for a job in a shite market, (which scared the crap out of me or bloody well man up and take over the reigns in the kitchen and get rid of our chef because it was either him or us. Sorry, us wins.
So by sheer fear I became exec chef six years ago. Scariest moment in my life, besides dying last year only to be revived....
As I begin this blog, I feel it necessary to own up to all of you, shed my dignity, unclothe my ego and show you my stark naked self (not literal).
I am not a trained french chef, nor am I trained chef from a community college, or do I have any diploma with culinary in the title. Confession One: I am a graduate of Southern Methodist University with the meaningless degrees in Political Science and Russian Area Studies. Sorry mom and dad for wasting your money!
I am a culinary novice so to speak, well may bit a more than that now, having climbed to executive chef of my catering company, Go Gourmet Catering.
Yes, that sounds a little odd. ("Climbed to chef of my catering company? Huh?") Disclosure numero dos! I started this company along with my wife in June 2001 before the world as we know it was so @$^# up. (the good ole days) I was not a chef but as stated in my bio, I loved food. Now here is the boring part. Fast forward if you like, but I must share, or my journey will make no bloody sense.
My family had a big bad ass business which we sold to a big bad ass NASDAQ company. So for awhile our family was rich, I was a brat and a douche and we lived like a low rent Kardashian or upmarket Beverly Hill Billy. Your choice for frame of reference. Well readers digest version, no matter how much money you have it can go fast if you are stupid, or surround yourself with thieves and crooks.
So as you can guess this doesn't have a happy ending. Family money is shrinking and I had to get off my ass and do something. My awesome wife, who works like she is not going to have money to feed the family if she does not get the next sale, was a super awesome pharma sales rep. She worked all over DFW (Texas y'all). As awesome as she was, she had no sense of direction. And for me with no direction in life, became her chauffeur. (Yes, this is before we had google maps, we had mapsco folks!) One day a light bulb went off. Or maybe she just hit me (probably deserved it). I noticed a pattern. She set appointments for lunch and breakfast and snacks and dinner programs all day long. We would have to go to restaurant pick up the food and bring it to clinics and doctors offices. She did this every bloody day! (yawn /boring), but that is how she sold and apparently a lot other people just like her. So I had this crazy idea, how about I start a company that focuses on catering to people just like you, there must be a lot. Well, let's just say we found a niche.
Fast forward. Sorry y'all, you still have to read more for context. I will just give you the meat and leaves the bones for another day. We hired chefs, got a big bad "A" commercial kitchen and with a a few thousand dollars made a million dollar business in 5 years, with really no clue what the hell we were doing. Remember no experience!
Another fast forward. Remember that great recession thing. Yeah that one, not such a good time for us. Budgets and layoffs in our niche business meant company collapsed in half in a few years. Meant debt, layoffs for us and just a general shite (british for shit) time. (Oh yeah I am English, pardon the late introduction)
So I had a come to Jesus moment. I was faced with two options, close down and look for a job in a shite market, (which scared the crap out of me or bloody well man up and take over the reigns in the kitchen and get rid of our chef because it was either him or us. Sorry, us wins.
So by sheer fear I became exec chef six years ago. Scariest moment in my life, besides dying last year only to be revived....
