I inhaled my first breath of life on July 2nd 1981 and was raised up in northern New Jersey. Growing up by my mother’s side meant I was stuck with her in the kitchen at an early age. And eating all of her well-seasoned ethnic meals helped develop this amazing palate of mine I call Mr. Tong. I couldn’t deny this early developmental passion for food building in me since all I ever watched were episodes upon episodes of food television show pioneers such as Jacques Pepin, Martin Yan, Julia Childs, etc.
It was during the end of high school when I came to the decision of becoming a chef. Working in a produce dept. at a local A&P wasn’t helping me pay off my car loan fast enough, so I embarked on the opportunity to hold a federal position in the Postal Service. After a few anthrax scares and the dotcom crash, I decided it was a wise time to join the status of the star chefs I grew up watching by entering the CIA (as in culinary). Little did I know that it would take more than just a few quarts of blood, sweat, and tears to reach their level.
Fast forward a couple of years, I find myself as a cook in Nobu Miami Beach getting paid $7/hour and attending FIU, which mixed with living in South Beach all three quickly came crashing down. I flew back to the tri-state and held a couple of stint positions in some of NYC’s “highly acclaimed” restaurants. I went from cook to sous chef, sous chef to chef de cuisine for a restaurant group in NJ – opened some restaurants for a couple of fat-belly owners – catered a few weddings – played the “How Sharp is Your Knife” game with a few crazy cooks from Guatemala – had more than a handful of wine and cheese tastings with so-called sommeliers – worked with dead-beat, aged chefs who lacked balls to take the plunge on starting their own business. I came to the conclusion that I didn’t want to end up in their position later in life.
On November 2010, Chuonfood dot com became the official website that will change a food consumer’s point of view. I’ve enjoyed my wild life in the restaurant business and experienced numerous encounters that will benefit anyone with even the tiniest interest in food. This is not your average food website that is filled with recipes from top to bottom. No, this is the place where readers and viewers actually gain information on what’s happening in the food industry today, where it’s going, wining and dining on a budget, the do’s and don’ts when you go out to eat, my personal restaurant reviews, kitchen gadget reviews, etc – basically, everything and anything that there is to talk about FOOD will be done here, with no sugar coating, by yours truly – Will Chu.
