At age fourteen I started dish/pot washing at Kennett Country Club. My chef supervisor Chris, was a Bulgarian chef who escaped a communist takeover making him a very serious about hard work. He was old school and somewhat abusive but he had a good heart.
Later I worked many jobs as dishwasher/pot washer and kitchen help. I worked an Italian restaurant, Hugo’s Inn, Perkins Cake and Steak, Red Fox Inn and often several jobs at same time. After high school I worked full-time in kitchen staff at retirement home, Methodist Country House, Kendall and Crosslands.. I had tried other jobs in construction, warehouse, service station but my desire and comfort zone was in food-service. I’ve always ended up going back to food-service.
At an upscale retirement home, Cokesbury Village, I worked my way up the staff to a first cook with much responsibility. I enjoyed working at Cokesbury Village very much and stayed there for five years. The chefs I worked with taught me a lot about cooking. Also, I studied culinary restaurant cooking books and took classes.
During this time at Cokesbury Village I did a part-time line cook position at the “Farmer and the Dell” and as seasonal help at Longwood Gardens’ restaurant “The Terrace”. At “The Terrace” I worked with very highly skilled chefs from the Culinary Institute.
My Restaurant Career
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.
My next position was as a sous chef at the “Greenery Two” restaurant. In a short time I was promoted as the head chef in charge of the “back of the house”. At this position besides cooking I had to do food ordering, menu planning, scheduling cooks and kitchen help, hire staff and many other tasks. I worked seven days a week and many hours a day. It was a very intense two years. During this position I spoke with many part-time cooks that were going to college. They often were impressed with my science, math and other knowledge and encouraged me to go back to school. Eventually the long hours burnt me out and I started wondering if I really wanted to be a chef. By this time I was in my mid-20s. This position abruptly ended leaving me time to contemplate on what I would do next as I had decided that I did not want to be a chef anymore.
The Transition from Chef to Software Developer
After leaving my chef position I saw some counselors who advised me to go back to college and learn something different. I had returned once again to college to study and get a degree in food-service management. I was taking a programming course and was complimented on my programming skills. Twenty minutes later a light switch went off in my head and I realized that I wanted to be a computer programmer.
Everyone thought I was crazy as I was already in food-service and was “making a living” but at this point I changed my major to computer science and got a part-time job at “The Delcastle Inn” as a cook and banquet chef that afforded me time to study. I worked at Delcastle Inn for a few years overlapping my first programming position at Software Services of Delaware. After a few weeks of part-time at Software Services of Delaware I was asked to work full-time and continue my education part-time. For the next three years I was working full-time for Software Services, part-time at Delcastle Inn, going to school at nights and weekends for my B.S. degree and studying every other moment of the day. These were three very busy exciting and memorable years that totally changed my life.
Though this seems a drastic move, I had a year in Del. Tech. earlier when it was all mainframe and I was playing with the very earliest personal computers.
Looking back, the organizational skills needed to run a kitchen gave me many skills that would be an asset in my future career. Actually none of my food service career was wasted, rather it gave me a unique perspective of work flows and organization.