Running a commercial kitchen can be a daunting task most days, although for different reasons. Around holidays like Valentine’s Day or Mothers Day, there’s the busy challenge of managing the build up and execution of a successful event. But one must also contend with slow times that also put stress…

The term “self care” is a major talking point these days; it’s everywhere. But even the mention of those words always made me a bit uncomfortable and I’m not sure why. …

I have been fortunate in my thirty plus years as a chef to have worked with some amazing people. The restaurant business attracts a wide variety of characters, from people with troubled childhoods and broken homes, to the privileged college kid who is struggling to live up to his parents’…

One of the greatest things for me about working in restaurants is that I love to eat, and eat well. Especially soup. I love soup; always have. For a chef, it’s the perfect quick meal. It can be eaten on the go and since in my younger days, especially, I…

When I think about my life in spiritual terms and how that relates to my cooking, I realize that when I’m happy and spiritually fit, my food also benefits. I’ve come to believe that when you’re cooking, the food absorbs whatever vibrational frequency you’re putting out. When I’m angry or…

One day I sat on the couch contemplating our lives, I was about to head off to one of my last few shifts at Bob’s waterfront disaster, and our nine month adventure in San Francisco would be coming to an end. I loved the city and all of its characters…

A Chef Reconsiders Sometimes, on a dull-feeling day, maybe when I don’t have to be into the restaurant until later than usual, I start to ruminate over the good, the bad, and the unresolved feelings I have after 30 years as a chef. In moments like these, I begin to…

Despite growing up with parents who were devoted members of Chögyam Trungpa’s Buddhist community in Boulder, I was never pressured to follow or even explore Buddhist teachers or leaders, and never found the call within myself to seek out a more formal relationship to the tradition. Sure, I was exposed…

It was Friday, March 13th, 2020, and I was about to leave the restaurant I’ve been the Executive Chef at for the last five years and head to LA for a three-day weekend. This was a trip I’d been excited about for some time, to see a friend that I…