* * *

Here is the short version: I grew up in Wisconsin and was a huge history buff from a pretty young age. I moved to Minneapolis in 2002 for college and got my history degree, but quickly discovered that, having lost interest in teaching, my degree was worthless. I made a quick career change and attended a culinary school in 2006 and I have been working in restaurants ever since.

* * *

It's not very often that I am posed with the question of who I am. I hardly know where to begin or what to tell you about myself. It begs the question of the purpose of this page, even. Why am I telling you about myself and why do you want to know who I am? Have you just stumbled across this site by some mishap and find your curiosity piqued? Or have you searched me out and are simply curious to read what I have to say about myself? Hopefully you're among the former. It is to you that I will address the following text.

I came into this world in rural Wisconsin, the unexpected fourth child of a turkey farmer and his wife. I grew up with an older brother that picked on me and called me "fruitcake" and two sisters, whom I got along with intermittently. Well, I guess I got along with one of them at least. Growing up on a turkey farm wasn't all bad. Except for the smell. And the work. Those parts were bad.

From a young age, history became my true passion. I loved to flip through books about presidents and wars and mostly look at pictures. But then I eventually got smart enough to read and became fascinated with military history. By the time I was 12, I was reading my dad's Tom Clancy novels and have been obsessed with Cold War history ever since. While I don't read quite as many spy novels as I did in high school, I still read plenty of memoirs and studies of military, politics, and espionage during the mid-twentieth century.

There was never really any question that when I finished high school, that I would be going to college to study history. In 2002, I enrolled at the University of Minnesota entirely set on becoming a history teacher. College certainly broadened my horizons, however, and I became engrossed with the history of Europe during the entire twentieth century, and even more-so Eastern Europe under the Soviet Union. By the time I was a junior, I realized that I really didn't want to teach. I struggled to find an alternative, but frankly, a Bachelors in History is fairly worthless. And my minor in international politics didn't help much either. Inevitably, I graduated in December 2005 after writing a senior thesis on the development of Yugoslavia's foreign policy following World War II.

In a move that surprised, well, everyone, I immediately enrolled at the Le Cordon Bleu culinary school in January 2006. I had decided I wanted to be a chef. To be honest, it was a pretty stupid move. I didn't know the first thing about working in a restaurant, had never even washed dishes in a restaurant, and the school was obscenely expensive. But in my ignorance, I plodded on, determined to fulfill my new aspiration. The thing was, I was not much of a cook and certainly not known to anyone as an aspiring chef. In fact, it was very well established that I was a very picky eater. I only began to dabble in cooking while living with Eric.

A couple months into school, I realized I needed a restaurant job. I promptly quit my well-paying office job (with benefits) and spent a few weeks working as a prep cook at a small bar and grill. Not knowing anything about the restaurant industry, I figured a hotel was a good place to start. So I began working at a Marriott hotel as a prep cook, working my way up to a line cook position. Yet the work was hardly satisfying. Frankly, the chefs were hacks and had no passion for their work. The food was lousy. During my time there, however, I also did my first stage, an unpaid "trial," at Restaurant Levain with Chef Steven Brown, one of the best chefs in Minneapolis. Standing in his kitchen was eye-opening. Not just the creativity and the flavors, but the integrity and passion as well. With new motivation, I began looking for a new job and, coincidentally, got in touch with a friend from high school who was working as a pastry chef at Wolfgang Puck's 20.21. By early August, I was working the dinner line at 20.21 on their hardest station: the wok.

Given that this was my first exposure to a real fine-dining kitchen, it was pretty daunting. I was on a fast-paced station during the busiest time of the year. For a while I began to seriously question whether I wanted to cook or not. I began to wonder if I had made a huge mistake. After a while things began to fall into place, I got the hang of it, and actually started to enjoy it.

And then everything changed. In January 2007, I started my three-month internship, which I had arranged to do in England. Just west of London is the tiny village of Bray, home to The Fat Duck, which was rated the best restaurant in the world in 2005 and has ever since held the "No. 2" spot. It was a once-in-a-lifetime chance and with less than a year of cooking experience, I found myself in one of the best kitchens in the world. It was certainly no walk in the park and was a serious financial burden. I was working 60-70 hours a week unpaid, doing menial prep work. I caught a break after a month or so and was able to work in pastry, making ice cream every day.

When my three months were up, I flew back to the States and started working at Chambers Kitchen by Jean-Georges Vongerichten in Minneapolis. Given my experience at 20.21, I started out working their wok station and, over the course of a year, eventually worked every station. Apparently my propencity for working for free hadn't completely faded, as I began a two-month-long stage at the Bayport Cookery in May. I worked with Chef Jim Kyndberg for his entire annual Morel Fest, which was an incredible experience. His restaurant remains one of my favorite places to eat, irrespective of the long drive.

In late 2007, I heard a rumor that Steven Brown was opening a new restaurant. Given that he was the chef that really opened my eyes to the world of fine cuisine, I was curious and got in touch with him. In January 2008, he hired me on at Porter & Frye, which was about to open at the new Hotel Ivy. It all started as a supplement to my hours at Chambers, but before long I made the switch to full-time. In the short time that I have been cooking, nothing has been more gratifying than what I do at P&F. That's a happy place to be.