CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION Welcome to my world of taste and smell, and all things delicious. With this book I intend to guide you with my 25 years of experience and knowledge, and give assurance that in following my lead, it will take you to new heights with your own personal or professional cooking accomplishments. With all my years of being a professional chef training cooks to properly operate a successful kitchen, and my love for teaching, I wanted to bring this guide to anyone and everyone who is looking for that perfect pathway to fine culinary art. This guide is a compilation of the notes I’ve taken, all the recipes I’ve perfected, and all the cooking techniques I’ve learned and taught throughout the years. I’d like to take you on a journey, masterfully through each step it takes to achieve your goals in fine culinary art. I’ve carefully devised the right steps it takes, starting with the basic stocks, sauces and bases, working into the pastas, vegetables, and meats; then on to the elaborate entrees, and learning how to bring in your creative thinking. Learning the basics opens the door to your own creations. Each step has its own preparation rules that make it easier to create that special dish. My personal library is full of dozens of cookbooks filled with recipes and techniques from around the world. I have been very fortunate to have apprenticed and worked with some of this country’s greatest culinary talents, teachers and chefs. In a way, this book is my way of giving to those who also want to learn the ways of the epicurean force, and be a culinary force of one! So, always try to keep in mind to use recipes as guides, not as “roadmaps with exact-measured steps”; rather, approach recipes with the mind-set of having a “quality-end-product” being the goal. Recipes are really just a process; it is up to you to learn, “What goes where, how & why…”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR My world of cooking and fine foods began when I was five years old and intent on watching and helping my great-grandmother make cinnamon rolls. She and my mother were my earliest inspirations in cooking, and I still make my cinnamon rolls that same way. After high school in Manhattan Beach, California, I went on to take my interest in food to the Los Angeles Culinary Art School to get my Associates Degree as Chef in Restaurant Management. This education proved to be a fantastic base in building my career. At the same time, I was fortunate to gain an apprenticeship with Certified Master Chef Andreas Kessler at Barnaby’s Hotel in Manhattan Beach. Once I obtained my degree, I moved to northern California where I was fortunate to secure a top position at the revered Albion River Inn outside the town of of Mendocino - fine dining and gourmet wedding banquets; a wonderful place to work and live. A few years later came family matters that interrupted my life, and I ended up in Las Vegas, Nevada. Here, again, I was fortunate in winning the audition to be the private chef for Mr. Las Vegas, Wayne Newton. My time with Mr. Newton was fantastic, cooking for so many of his famous friends. And he and his family are wonderful people. But the contract came to an end, and I longed to be back at the beaches of Southern California. I made myself available as a freelance chef, working with catering companies, and private dinners. I soon became the Sous Chef at the very prestigious, private Rolling Hills Country Club. It was a great experience having several gourmet-functions every single day, and a wedding banquet scheduled every Sunday for the next few years… there, I learned so much. Through client referrals and networking, my freelance and personal chef services began to grow, and my list of clients was exceptional. In order to live closer to particular clients, I moved to Malibu for the time to complete several assignments. I catered weddings, special events and dinner parties for many well-known celebrities and high-profile corporate executives in Malibu, Beverly Hills & Hollywood. I have had the unique experience of working for

people who would often take their chef (me) with them on elaborate vacations. Like cruising on 110-foot custom yachts up and down the West Coast, to month-long gourmet llama-packing trips in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. In 2010 I was hired to cater a Thanksgiving dinner for the sitting Speaker of the House, the third most powerful politician in the U.S government, at the time, Mrs. Nancy Pelosi and her family. After dinner Mrs. Pelosi told me my raspberry dark chocolate truffle cake may be the best chocolate dessert she’s ever had, and this woman really loves chocolate! It was a fine meal and a very kind compliment from a kind lady, who was just lovingly celebrating Thanksgiving with her friends and family… plus a full detail (3 trucks full) of Secret Service agents. This was a memorable evening for sure. In 2010, I returned to Las Vegas working as a personal chef for many of those I have known as well as new clients continually. The next year, 2011, a poll taken by the website for professionals, Thumbtack.com, voted me as the Top Personal Chef/Caterer in Las Vegas. Since then, my career as a top personal chef for 25 years has continued to be truly an exciting adventure, with always more to learn every day and around every corner. I want to share this all with you to teach and guide you through your personal journey of fine cooking.