therealdesign

I look back at the last 40 plus years and I just can’t believe how fortunate I have been. I’ve eaten pizza in Venice, cooked at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait during the war, catered million dollar events, owned a Jewish Deli, traversed through a banana plantation in Jamaica, and ran a restaurant in the World Trade Center. I have gone on a shark dive 70 feet below the surface in the waters off of Jupiter Florida, sat in an F16 fighter jet at a naval air station hangar, worked in radio with the now infamous Glenn Beck long before his Fox News days, appeared on The Tony Danza Show, was referred to as the “King of Hot Dogs” by Paula Deen while on her show Paula’s Party, sat in the stands of Yankee stadium to watch a perfect game, a no-hitter, numerous world series games and most importantly, reared two beautiful twin sons.

For the last 13 years, I served as the Senior Executive Chef of Sara Lee, at one-time, a $20 billion dollar behemoth in the food world. I was originally hired as a consultant to help launch the Bistro Collection, Sara Lee’s foray into upscale individual desserts. Six months later, I was hired as the company’s first executive chef. For the next decade or so, I would become the face of Sara Lee Foodservice. I consulted with the executive chefs of major corporations, built an online social media website for Sara Lee’s broker chef network and inspired food innovations that would be featured on menus across the US. I designed Quizno’s first “dip” sandwich featuring sliced roast beef, a pesto mayonnaise, caramelized onions and 3 cheeses served with a beef au jus dip. I had the bewitching opportunity to leave a thumbprint on American cuisine that has been enjoyed my millions of people across the US. This seemed very powerful to me, and to this day, I still feed off of the challenge of leaving a little mark in the food world and the endless pleasures of sharing with others who love good food.

I’m not done yet. I’ve moved on from Sara Lee and am excited to be starting the new adventure that starts with this website, my new Facebook fanpage and what I hope will become a lively Twitter community for fellow foodies.

This website will chronicle all of what I see, eat, cook and experience in my food life. I hope you’ll be a part of my journey.