I grew up in a rural area with just my siblings, we had no neighbors our age, so for the most part we only had each other and I think that closeness has carried over into our current relationships with each other. 

From a young age I learned to love food, I loved to help my mom or just read her cookbooks.  I loved going out to dinner with my grandmother and learning about etiquite and the pleasure in eating.  So my entire working life has been spent around food, from scooping ice cream to cooking in high end family dining.  My lifes passion has always been food!!!

I remember in third grade not making great grades and the kids that did got to go to some space camp in Alabama for a weekend and it bummed me out that I did not get to go and so from then on grades were of the highest priority!  I ended up graduating seventh in my class of over 200 and I received very good scholarships to a very prestigious college, The University of the South-Sewanee.  However, I left Sewanee after my freshman year for a girl and because I was not happy there.  This decision became a critical one for my future. 

When I transferred to Austin Peay State University I met a group of guys from a fraternity, Kappa Sigma.  It was by joining this organization that I feel I made all the positive moves in the rest of my education which led to my current family life and career.  As a Kappa Sigma I was given the opportunity to be President in only my second semester as an active, these men saw something in me that I never had before and they helped me grow that leadership and become a leader not only in Kappa Sigma but in the student government where I was a senator of the year, the Interfraternity Council that I was president of, the Physics honor society, Del Squared Psi which I was president of.  It was through these accomplishments that I was able to receive substantial financial aid from The Culinary Institute of America, without which I would have been unable to attend. 

With my education I started out as a Biology major in pursuit of an MD, by going to liberal arts colleges I was exposed to other disciplines and ended up picking up majors in Philsophy and Physics and minors in Chemistry and Ethical Studies.  I loved my classes, I loved the departments but I never fully embraced a love of medicine.  I saw horrible things in the nedical field, a lack of care, a lack of ethics, a lose of the personal love for patients.  So in my final semester I started applying to culinary schools as well as post grad studies in physics and medicine, but I knew the moment I was accepted at The CIA that I was going to be a chef!!!  It was on my extern that I met my now wife and mother of my son.  It is thru this school that I got placed at Club LeConte in Knoxville and learned from Seth Simmerman the true push, passion and discipline a chef must have.  It was at Club LeConte that I met Roy McKinnon and Deron Little who helped me get my current job at Tennessee National.  It all ties together, a young love of cooking blooms into an amazing family life that is supported by a career in food and beverage.  This career has allowed my wife to be a stay at home mom and raise one hell of a good kid!!!