I was born and raised (for the most part) in Indianapolis, IN. After graduating from HS, I started going to community college for my general courses. That is until 9/11 happened, and I made the decision to join the US Navy as a Nuclear Machinist Mate. I did this for 6 years and was able to see a lot of the world along with its food and cultures. After my enlistment ended, I took a job at a nuclear power plant in southern NJ. I met my wife, Jen, at the plant while she was an intern in 2012, and in October of 2015, we married. In 2017 we decided we would start to build a family, which kind of started what I like to call my “quarter-life crisis”. Once I found out Jen was pregnant I realized I couldn’t spend the rest of my life working shift work in a job that I was apathetic about. After a lot of discussions, it was decided that I would leave my current job to find something that would benefit the whole family. I took a position at the local utility but ran into the same problem that I had at the power plant with long hours and a terrible schedule. I left the utility to start a job with Praxair in what I thought would be my final landing spot with assurances that I wouldn’t be working 60+ hour weeks. Needless to say, it wasn’t true, so I left not knowing what the future would hold.
Jen at that time asked me a question that had never really occurred to me at that point in my life. She asked me “What do you want to do?” meaning what did I want to do with my life. Up to this point, I based what career I wanted to have based on money. Working at the plant I made excellent money. I didn’t grow up with a lot, and I wanted to make sure my family could have everything they wanted. I want my children to be able to explore their options and have every opportunity that they could. At the same time, I need to do something that I enjoy. I eventually made a list that included cooking and beer. Getting into the beer industry can be hard due to the high amount of people that are interested in working for breweries. Breweries are opening more and more every year, but it’s still a high-interest field. The restaurant industry has a lot more options, however, with no formal training, this could be a problem. Around this time a local food truck, Rebel Cove, was hiring for help on their food truck. Jen encouraged me to contact them, which I did, and I was responded to almost immediately. I was brought in for an interview, and shortly after I started my new adventure working with Rebel Cove’s food truck. At the time the owner was looking to expand from a food truck into a small restaurant that would serve our current menu items along with an expanded menu. Not long after construction began and I was asked to help manage. The idea was that we would get the restaurant Rebel Cove Grill running, and after a time the search for the newest location would proceed. On September 11th, 2019 the restaurant finally opened, and we had a lot of lessons learned. The increased scope of the restaurant allowed us to expand our menu, but at the same time expanded our inventory requirements which is a balance because you want to eliminate waste while keeping the correct amount of inventory at the same time.
This brings me to now and why I decided to start a cooking and family blog. I need a place to not only have a documented portfolio but also for a creative outlet that shows my culinary journey. I am the type of person who sometimes can’t sleep because I have an idea that at night will bloom in my head uncontrollably. This blog will help me to have an outlet for those ideas. Sometimes it will be nice just to have a place to be able to put my thoughts down as well.