Since I have moved overseas I always tell people I am from Seattle. This saves me from explaining that I am not from the same Washington where George Bush lives. However I am not from Seattle but from Spokane Washington where I lived until I was 20 years old. Spokane is where I accidentally found myself working in a bakery in High School to make some money for teenage extra curricular activities.
After graduating high school I took a year off from school while continuing to work at Fugazzi Bakery making simple American sweets, breakfast pastries and rustic European breads. After my break I went to Community College to begin my studies to start a career in Sports Medicine. While studying I continued working at Fugazzi Bakery while also taking a second job at the newly opened Rockwood Bakery. I would go to school, go to the gym, go to work, eat egg white omelets and bake cookies, cakes and everything I was not supposed to eat. This was not working out for my goal to have abs like Brad Pitt.
After one year at college I was offered the position as head baker at Big Sky Resort in Big Sky Montana. I took the job offer with the goal of returning to school after the summer break. This never happened.
Working at the resort was another world compared to working for local home-style bakeries. Large scale banquets, breakfast buffet for 1000pax and, a la carte desserts was something I had never done before and I started to become more focused on the pastry world in order to do my job better. The summer soon came to an end and I decided to work the winter season and that school could wait. During the winter season I decided to try a hand at being a waiter. This allowed me to take a second job at at the Rainbow Ranch, a fine dining restaurant. Again this was a new experience and I soon realized that I wanted to become a professional pastry chef and also realized I never wanted to be a waiter again. Working the two jobs allowed me to save enough money to travel to Europe for 3 months where I by chance found a culinary school in Switzerland.
At DCT I earned my advanced diploma in European culinary arts. I studied hotel management and hot kitchen as well as pastry. I also met the love of my life who is still by my side today. After my schooling and Swiss work experience I followed my love to South Florida where I gratefully found a job at The Breakers in Palm Beach Florida.
I worked in banqueting and soon in the fine dining French restaurant Le' Escalier. Not long after, the pastry chef resigned and I was left to run the section on my own. This was perhaps the beginning of my obsession with books and self development. I had to learn a lot by reading as I had no one to teach me. My mornings were spent reading, writing menus and designing desserts that were never to be used but were only for me to practice to be a chef someday. After quite sometime a pastry chef was hired and I soon left after to take a job as pastry sous chef for the Ritz Carlton South Beach.
The Ritz Carlton South Beach was a newly opened hotel that had opened without a pastry chef. Again I was without a pastry chef to guide and teach me but by this time I was used to figuring out myself. Here I gained probably the most important experience of my career. I was 24 years old and was running a 5 star pastry kitchen with assistance from the executive chef of course. After 8 months a pastry chef was hired. It was uncomfortable to hand over some of my responsibilities to the new pastry chef. I liked being in charge, I liked being fully responsible and I liked the stress of running the show. My girlfriend was soon offered a job in Hong Kong (where she is from) and I could do nothing but support her as she was to work for Spoon by Alain Ducasse. She left and about 6 months later I was to follow her to Hong Kong but not before taking advantage of the break.
Before getting to Hong Kong I made one month stage at the Fat Duck. I also spent one week in the kitchen at Alinea where I almost scrapped my plans to move to Hong Kong as I had fell in love with the Alinea kitchen and food style. These experiences were of very special importance in my career development and I will always be grateful to have had the chance to do this.
So there I was in Hong Kong. I took my first real pastry chef job at the Excelsior Hotel. This was a large operation and extremely busy. I had walked into a real nightmare as the kitchen was terribly set up, and the team was only a few and run mostly by casual labor (part time staff). This was not for me. With Michelin Star dreams and Ritz Carlton still in my blood I had to get out.
I found a new job at the Marco Polo Hongkong Hotel. The pastry kitchen had been neglected since the beginning of time but something told me to accept the challenge and so I did. Within 6 months the pastry kitchen was looking good. I had also grown quite close as a gweilo (white devil) could with my team. They were constantly improving and appreciated all the challenges I was throwing at them daily. After one year the kitchen and team had really turned into a 5 star kitchen. With my daily challenges getting less and less it was time to look for a new experience.
Finally my dreams were coming true as I was hired as Executive Pastry Chef to open the Ritz Carlton Sanya. I was 27 years old and this was all that I wanted for quite some time. I left Hong Kong to go to the "Chinese Hawaii" to face my greatest challenge. I spent 5 months in pre-opening where I hired my team from all over China. This was a long process but worth it as I ended up with a really great team that will always be specially remembered. I unfortunately had to return to Hong Kong as I was expecting a baby and Sanya was not the most ideal place for my soon to be family. It was a very hard decision but it was for the best interests of my family.
My baby boy was born August 15, 2008 and shortly after I returned to work at the Marco Polo Hongkong Hotel. A new restaurant, Cucina had opened in my absence and my first priority was to put a proper dessert menu into place. Within a months time the new menu was going and along the way we are making necessary changes and looking to create a few signatures along the way. I thankfully returned to the same pastry team and fresh challenges ahead.
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