Where did you grow up?

I was born in Calgary, Alberta and lived the first 8 years in Vancouver. We moved over to Victoria, to Vancouver Island, and that’s where I grew up.

An athlete. I was a baseball player, the catcher. You’re the leader of the team. You control the pitcher and you’re always in the game, an important position. I think that’s why I liked it so much.

Not really. My mom was a really good cook. If you were to put my mom and grandma’s food side by side, they are exactly the same. We ate dinner together every night. At the time I didn’t get how important that was to the family.

I started out as a bus boy. It didn’t take long for me to get out of the front of the house to the back of the house. All the cools guys were in the back of the house. I was a dishwasher in a pizza joint.

At 14 my dad said you need to get a job. Where I grew up the job choices were delivering newspapers, which I did, a gas station or you work in a restaurant. I tried to get myself into the kitchen as fast as possible. It was where all the action was.

Looking back, it, working in the kitchen, was something I liked, but I didn’t have time for it. I was too busy with sports.

In the same restaurant I went from dishwasher to cook. I learned every facet of how it worked. I eventually became the kitchen manager. They didn’t have a chef, you were called a kitchen manager. So maybe that’s my first real chef job.

I knew I was good at it and had this thirst for more. I wanted to work in a kitchen with a real chef and learn as much as I could, so I went and looked for an apprenticeship.

I did one year of college which gave me half of my degree at that point. Then I did an apprenticeship program, which was 1 month in the classroom and 11 months in a professional setting. After three years you’re done.

In Canada that was a paid position. I don’t believe they’re doing that program any more. It used to be sponsored by the federal government. It was inexpensive and in my mind it’s still the right way to do it. I’m not against culinary schools but it put me way ahead of the guys who went to school.

I’ve got two young guys working with me now. I tell them to write to high profile chefs and tell them that they are willing to work for them for free. It’s harder now with liability, but usually smaller, chef-owned places will allow it. It’s the best experience.

Absolutely. More hands in the kitchen, you can put more effort into the cuisine and at the end of the day we’re producing better food, and they get great hands on experience.

I was the chef for a small bistro in Victoria, it had only 50- 80 seats. It’s still there but has changed hands. I was then recruited by Realis et Chateaux Guide rated, Aerie Resort and Spa in Malahat, British Columbia. They had extremely high standards and I learned a lot there.

LINK: http://www.aerie.ca/web/

Yes, and it’s where I stayed. Considering my young and inexperience, it was my passion that was fueling me. I had to work extremely hard to keep up. Once I was able to achieve that, it was evident that I had some sort of talent. I was there almost 5 years.

It’s a phenomenal industry to be in and you meet so many people. If you’re good, it comes to you. If you have the talent and drive and you are good it sort of falls in your lap. I’ve never gone after a job, they have asked me.

How I became the chef here at the Old Collier. My wife and I came to Naples, FL, she had family here. We sold everything and came with nothing, it was like we started over. Had no job, but we knew that might be the case. This area is the polar opposite of where we came from. We were here two weeks and Hurricane Charlie hit. Welcome to Florida! I got a call from Steve, the Director of Golf at Old Collier, whom we knew. He knew I wasn’t working and asked me if I’d help out on golf course. I said, "You know what I do for a living?" (Laughter). He said yes but that he really could use the help.

I was familiar with the business of golf. I had gotten into the golf business because I love it. It’s also one of those sports that works well for chefs too. I thought, why not. We worked 6 a.m. - 2 p.m. outdoor all day and it’s really hot! Probably the hardest manual labor I’ve ever done in my life.

While I was working, the club management decided to revamp their clubhouse, changing all the staff, including the chef. General manager gets a hold of my resume and says, "This guy’s working in course maintenance?" Long story short, I got the job.

Fun. We know we have to have leadership, it’s got to be clean and safe, etc. We’re here 12-14 hours a day. We have to laugh hard from the belly at least once a day, it’s not good enough. Everything gets done well, we’re competing with the top of the heap. We claim we’re one of the top clubs in the country and we have to prove that every day.

Even after 5 years I still don’t get Florida. It’s not a real farm-to-table, grassroots culture, or least I haven’t found it to be. I’m trying more and more to tap into local farms. Right now I fly in a lot of stuff because I have the resources to do that.

My problem is, with a very small club it’s difficult to support the farmers. We don’t have the volume. We support the farmers’ market in Naples and try to foster that. It’s the message we want to send, we want to support them as best we can.

The neat thing about being in a club is that noone knows what I’m doing except the members, their spouses and guests. I’m their ‘personal’ chef, I’m not my own chef. A chef/owner is their own chef. They make what they want if you don’t like it you don’t go there. Here, after a time you do gain the trust of the members. It takes a long time to get that point in a private club. They get to eat my interpretation of the food. If I didn’t get to do that here I wouldn’t be here either.

Sous-vide, we do it for a number of reasons. I like modern techniques.

Right now, my vacuum chamber.

When I started my apprenticeship I was a pub cook in a Brew Pub. Part of my job was to clean the fryers. Today we have machines that do this, but we did it manually back then. I dumped the oil all over the floor and trust me there gallons of it. I’m in the kitchen by myself, 2-3 a.m, GM is just looking at me shaking his head. Finally get it all cleaned up. Very next night, I’m doing the same fryer and I’m real nervous. I’m making sure I’m not spilling anything. To clean it you drain the oil and filter it, dump water into the chamber, clean it and dump the filtered oil back in.

Out of nervousness I poured the water into the chamber but the oil was still in there. What happens when you put cold water into hot oil? It explodes! It’s pretty dangerous. The mess was twofold and the same people were working that night. I thought I was done for sure.

Trust your instincts

What’s on the horizon for you?

I want to eventually own my own restaurant so I can express myself. For now, I’m very happy where I am and being active in the community and continue working with the ACF. It allows me to give back through kids to the food industry. I’m looking forward to competing in the National competition in Orlando in September.