Michele Ragussis
Age: 40 Head Chef, Beast Co-owner, Stuf Catering Brooklyn, N.Y.
"At Beast I work part-time, around 35 hours a week, as an executive chef. I just started a catering company, so I'm trying to kick it off the ground. I'm a little tired of working in the restaurant business, and I think catering gives you more freedom to be creative. I love working one-on-one with the client. I do any kind of food anybody wants. My style is Mediterranean with New England flair, but I do a little bit of everything. I do events, corporate catering, birthday parties or anything desired. In the summer if they want a clambake, I'll throw one. I am Greek-Italian and my family just constantly cooked — my mother is amazing. At 27 I was bartending and my friends wondered why I wasn't cooking. I decided to go to culinary school and hated it. It's just so military. Food is fun to me. Sometimes when you're working in kitchens everything is very militant. We're not brain surgeons or saving lives. It should be fun. Number one: I love to eat. I think food is just gorgeous; visually, I love everything about it. I can't imagine doing anything else. I think it's pretty cool to get paid to play with food as a job. I always loved food but never actually thought I could become a chef. I'm a joker in the kitchen. As long as things are getting done and coming out right, I'm good. I think I handle pressure fine, and I actually might work better when I'm busier and under more pressure. That's kind of why I want to do Chopped. I like testing myself. The whole time thing is interesting. I think I'm pretty fast, but you have to like the stress or you won't be a good chef. I think I'm really, quietly competitive. I'm not one of those people who's all, "yo, I'm gonna kick your a**," because I think that bites you in the butt. I will stick to what I know and make food that tastes good."
Spartan979_musik6-13-05 · Sat Jul 24, 2010 @ 02:10am · 0 Comments |