While I was in college I worked at Delcastle Inn cooking for banquets, weddings and other events. Also, I did short order cooking for the golf club restaurant. The owner didn’t pay me much but was very understanding and versatile with my hours. I stayed there until well after I started at my second position at Rollins Truck Leasing so I was there for possibly five years.

I started at Greener Too as a sous chef. A few months after I started, the chef left and I was offered the chef position. This position included all types of cooking, creating a menu, managing the staff and staffing the shifts, food purchasing, special events planning, cleaning and managing all of the “back of the house”. We were a gourmet restaurant catering to some very high profile people in the area such as duPonts, then Senator Biden, and many others. I was a good chef but it became too much for me to manage and eventually I burnt out and in my mid-twenties I decided I did not want to be a chef after all but I had no idea what I wanted to do.

I was hired as the sous chef at La Grande. This was my first big job outside of institutional food service. It turned out that restaurants and institutional cooking are very different. I made soups, sauces, prepped entrees, boned legs of veel and huge fish. We won a “Philly Chili of the Year” and catered to some regular customers who were well known Philadelphia Eagles. I often worked double shifts from early in the morning to late at night. The heat in the summer could be 120 degrees nearby the ovens. It was a very memorable time.

A funny story about my transition from institutional to restaurant cooking. I was opening up early in the morning for brunch buffet at La Grande. I’d put the steamship round in the oven around 6:00 am. One morning the owner comes in with a huge syringe needle and injects the steamship round that was in the oven. I said, “Bill what are you doing?”. He said he was tenderizing the meat with MSG. Then I preached to him about how that was so unhealthy having been indoctrinated in institutional cooking where health is priority. I’ll never forget the lesson that he taught me. He turned to me and frankly said, “John, no one comes to my restaurant for their health. They come here for the taste”. It was a valuable lesson that could be taken many ways in life.

While I was at Cokesbury Village and then La Grande Salade Saloon, I would work the Christmas season at the Longwood Terrace restaurant catering to many events. The chefs were all top chefs and I learned a lot from them. Our clientele was often the duPont family and other elites.

I started at Cokesbury as a full-time dish/pot washer but very shortly after starting became a third cook doing breakfasts and lunches. After a year or so I became second cook and after that first cook. In the meantime I studied the art of classic cooking and learned much from the chefs. This was institutional cooking which means preparing a small list of entrees and sides for a large group of a fixed customer base. Health and nutrition were a priority so I worked closely with two nutritionists and had to prepare for inspections. I had many fond memories of Cokesbury Village. We were a family.

After five years at Cokesbury Village I decided to pursue my food-service career as a restaurant chef at gourmet restaurants. My first position was at “The La Grande Salad Saloon” with Chef Richard Barboa. I was his assistant or sous chef doing preparation of soups, sauces, chili and entrees and sometimes filling in as a line cook. This position was very demanding and very long days sometimes early morning until late at night. It was a very intense learning experience for a few years.

Farmer in the Dell was a part-time short-order cook after hours at Cokesbury Village. It gave me some exposure to short-order in restaurants which was very different than institutional.

For a time I was a part-time or and full-time dish/pot washer for both Kendal and Crosslands retirement villages.

I was a full-time career dish/pot washer and food stocker at the Methodist Country House. It was hard to find work at the time and they gave me a position that suited me well at the time. I made many friends and had very memorable times.

During high school and for a short time later I worked at Hugo’s as a dishwasher and pizza maker. Hugo’s was my first Italian and short-order cooking exposure.

When we moved to Chester County I had to change my previous lawn maintenance business to a new source of income. In 10th grade I got a job as a dish/pot washer after school and weekends at the Kennett Country Club. I made many friends there some of who I am still friends with. It was a long time ago but had a very impressionable mark on my future. The chef who hired me escaped the USSR’s hold in Bulgaria being shot at as he escaped. Chris was a very hard person to work for as he believe that abusing a person toughened them up for life. It did toughen me up actually and I think Chris.