Fork My Life: A Year in the Kitchen

The first picture documenting my kitchen adventure!In my unpaid month in banquets, I averaged 14 hours a day and 6 days per week earning a grand total of $0 income...but at least the view was nice and I was pumped about the experience.

Chef JuanThe Executive Banquet Chef and the first Chef I worked for- to this day still mentors me on all my career choices.

The first food I put out on a professional level.

Then after a month of free labor, I was finally hired...only to take an externship opportunity at Blackberry Farm in Tennessee with a few of the guys from The Nell. Really great picture quality here. I figured I should get as much experience at as many incredible places as I possibly could and Blackberry was an opportunity I just couldn't pass up.

My knife skills were improving by this point.

Can you tell I missed Chicago a little?

The farm was awesome. It was literally steps away from the kitchen, but we typically took a joy ride on the golf carts. Our prep list often consisted of: "Need to pick 3 things from the farm to use. One for the scallops, two for the Rouget- don't forget to run ideas by Chef before 3." Those were my favorite days where we got to let our creativity run wild.

The boys of Blackberry.

Why is this one of the only pictures of me in the BBF kitchen? Typical, cleaning.

Blackberry's Butcher Sully.Nuttiest guy around! I clocked one too many hours down in the freezing cold butcher shop, a few more and I'd go nutty too. Whenever a new pig came in, Sully knew I'd be in there early to help out.

The line crew on our final day.

Adios Blackberry.

Back at the Nell, I'd been positioned on Bar Station, finally down in the main kitchen but I still squeezed in some hours in butchery, and with the emilio-miti pasta machine!

Mangalista pigs.

Rigatoni!

Playing around with rack of rabbit.

Rabbit Angos.

We started picking up some pretty interesting dishes on bar station including the new sweetbreads on the menu. I learned how to get sweetbreads from this initial disgusting looking stage to a beautiful final plate.

Blanching them.

Peeling the membrane.

Pressing them overnight and cutting them into...

usable little squares.

Orange glazed sweetbreads, onion marmalade and olive oil powder.

I spent a lot of time figuring out what to do with overstocked items.

Mint turned into Mint Gnocci.

Every week, a case of artichokes turned into Artichokes Barigoules.

The never ending quest to turn the perfect artichoke.

Looking pretty damn close to perfect.

Finally after paying my dues on bar station for awhile, I was moved up to Garde Manager. I earned my way onto the line!

My beloved station.

The line crew. Coco, Flip and Goober. The three best guys I know, they might as well be brothers.

Steve and Vinny.Probably the two most important and influential people in my first year of cooking.

My mentor and role model.

Some shots of the drip room...

And finally...the last day of work. These are the people that made my first year in the kitchen the best year of my life. They taught me the meaning of hard work, what passion really looks like, and how to function as a team and a family. I spent more time with them than anyone else including friends and family the past year, they've gotten me through a lot and taught me everything I know about cooking.