2009-01-06T04:56:15Z No Author Copyright 2009, No Author SPHPBLOG
The best way to start off is tell you how I started off. I’ve spent my entire life in the restaurant business, mostly in the kitchen. I have to confess that I lied my way into my first job as a cook. I really wanted to be a bartender at this restaurant, and the only way to do it was to get hired on and wait for a spot to open up, so I told them “Yeah, I can grill.”

Well, let me tell you, there’s grilling, and then there’s grilling for 300 people on a Friday night at a busy restaurant. Surprisingly, it took them 'til 7pm or so to figure it out, but let me stay on and train. I never did go back to being a bartender. I did meet my future wife while managing the kitchen at that restaurant. SHE was a bartender, and I eventually won her over by sneaking her very, very rare beef tenderloin.

Some years go by, and I found myself climbing the corporate ladder, managing an entire region of 26 restaurants and getting further and further from being in the kitchen and not being happy about that, so I went home one night and told my wife (yes, she of the rare, rare beef tenderloin) that I was quitting to start my own restaurant. I was going to cook the food I loved, the way I wanted. After about two pounds of beef tenderloin she was in a protein stupor and agreed. In February 2001, I opened the original Fuego Café and Tapas Bar, which later became the Fuego Spanish Grill in Midtown Atlanta.

Next episode: The Great Paella War…. ]]> http://www.fuegocafe.com/fuegoblog/index.php?entry=entry060718-014334 2006-07-18T00:00:00Z 2006-07-18T00:00:00Z