Meet Chef Eric
I grew up in several states, but I did most of my growing up in Michigan. Raised by a single mom, I ended up cooking as a kid and have spent most of my life cooking for a living. I worked my way up through kitchens the old-fashioned way, learning from chefs, long shifts, mistakes and successes, and probably a little from the school of hard knocks too.
Over the years, I worked everywhere from little French and Italian restaurants to larger restaurant groups, high-end kitchens and eventually The Ritz-Carlton. As part of the opening culinary team at The Ritz-Carlton, I had my first opportunity to cook for a U.S. president, George W. Bush. For much of my career I worked as a sous chef and saucier. My job was making sure things tasted amazing. Sauces, seasoning, balance and flavor. That was always the part of cooking I loved most.
Then I took on the role of chef at a little family place, and from there I started a catering company that grew into a large, respectable, award-winning business. One part of my company was Gourmet Airfare, our aviation catering division, and for nearly two decades my staff and I prepared high-end food for private aircraft. In 2005, NetJets recognized Gourmet Airfare with its national Service Excellence Award, an honor presented to one aviation caterer each year. During those years, we also prepared meals for four U.S. presidents and their press corps.
I also spent close to two decades working in film production catering, feeding cast and crew on movie and television sets around the country and in England. Yep, I even have an IMDb page, which lists quite a few of the productions I worked on, although not all of them.
Hard to believe when I look back on it, but over the course of my career I've prepared and served more than two million meals. Some were for presidents, celebrities, athletes, musicians, CEOs and people you'd probably recognize. Most were for private clients, wedding guests, corporate clients, film crews, families and everyday people. I enjoyed cooking for all of them, and I have a lot of stories to share, for sure.
Chef Eric