About Me

As a teen I had 2 interests, cooking and emergency medical services. I spent my junior and senior year of high school taking culinary arts at a vocational school during the day and volunteering in a youth ambulance group in the evening. I also needed a source of income so I began washing dishes at a restaurant. I spent a few years trying to decide which direction I wanted to take, chef or medic? At the age of 19 I enlisted in the US Air Force and worked as a Medic for 8 years. During my last year I decided to pursue my dream of professionally cooking and began to look at Culinary Schools. After being honorably discharged from the USAF in 1998 I attended The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. Cooking school was incredible; I enjoyed every aspect of it. In 2000 I completed an externship at “Bistro bis” in Washington D.C. under the guidance of James Beard Award winning chef Jeffrey Buben. A few months after my externship I graduated from the “C.I.A.” with honors and moved to Vegas. I worked as a line cook at “Nobhill” and “The Mansion” at MGM Grand. I had a desire to have a better quality of life and decided to go the “corporate dining” route and took on a sous chef position with a large company. I was managing a kitchen in a large medical center and started to connect with dieticians and discussing how we can educate people on healthy eating, and make it enjoyable. I began doing cooking demonstrations at farmers markets and made a few appearances on the local news discussing healthy eating and familiarizing people with new ingredients. I finally started to develop a passion towards a particular style of cooking. Over the next several years I took on several great opportunities. I did corporate dining in Minnesota, worked as a Research and Development chef in Utah and taught culinary classes, I finally settled in Long Beach, CA to open a new airport dining concept…..that’s when it happened. I was experiencing terrible gastrointestinal symptoms after every meal, every single meal. I had a feeling it was gluten sensitivity, but lived in denial. I went to a G.I. specialist and was diagnosed with Celiac Disease. How do I work as a chef over multiple foodservice venues and not taste food without getting sick? Well I didn’t, I continued to taste and get sick daily. After all, how was I going to support my family if I couldn’t eat, I eat for a living! So here we are a new adventure in food! I’m taking my knowledge of cooking and applying it to simply prepared delicious gluten free meals. I will share recipes, product reviews, and a few stories about my new adventures in gluten free cooking.

I currently reside in Long Beach, California with my wife Mindy, our son Zach, and our dogs Torre and Alli. I began this blog as an opportunity to share my passion of cooking and to demonstrate how going “gluten free” isn’t an end to good eating; it’s the start of a new approach to great eating. Along with my blog I will also be running my personal chef business on this site. I specialize in gluten free meals prepared in your home on a weekly basis. I do the shopping, cooking, and packaging and clean up. You arrive home to a weeks’ worth of meals for 2-4 people based on your specific wants and needs.