What are your earliest memories of the kitchen? 
I guess I have been in the kitchen since I could crawl. There is one tale that I was discovered in the kitchen before dawn one morning with a spoon in one hand an ice cream cone in the other sitting in what was once an entire flat of eggs (30) without a shell to be found.
One of my earliest food memories was the first time I made ice cream with my grandfather. I was probably five or six-years-old. We cranked the handle for what seemed like an eternity. When it was finally time to eat the ice cream, it had been spoiled with salt.
Turns out the seam on the canister had broken along with my heart. I recall crying because I was not able to eat the salty ice cream. It wasn’t that bad, maybe that is why I like the salty Lassis at Mela - Lassis are a traditional Indian beverage, sort of like a yogurt shake.
By the time I was in junior high I was cooking quite regularly. When I was in seventh grade I was grounded for some reason (neither my mom or I can recall what it was, but whatever it was I am sure that I did it). Part of my punishment was to make lunch for the family everyday.
We were living in Saudi Arabia at the time and everyone came home for lunch each day. The kids got home from school about twenty minutes before my parents, so I was to have lunch made or at least almost done.
Turns out I found my briar patch. By the end of the month the meals became more elaborate and from that point on, cooking was something you could find me doing. My friends’ parents would ask when I was staying over again, since I was famous for cooking a big breakfast at whoever’s house I would stay at.
How did you get involved in restaurant work professionally?
My first restaurant job of note was as a server at Stemmerman’s in Wilmington, NC, a place owned by distant cousin. It was a great introduction to the business. Pat and Bob were great and the chef Roger was a good guy. Roger would let me fool around in the kitchen on my days off or, if he needed the help, I could jump behind the line. But I was no cook by any means.
Soon I began working the line on Tuesday nights. One day my cousins sat the staff down to announce they sold the restaurant to some folks from New York. The new owner was a wealthy Lebanese fellow and, you know what they say, the best way to make a small fortune in the restaurant business is to start with a large fortune.
After sometime of the new ownership, the chef left without much notice and our fearless leader declared that I was going to be the new chef. The previous lunch chef named John did all of the ordering so all I had to do was cook.
Before I accepted the job I looked at the owner and John and said we would have to change the menu. But I like the menu the owner said. Yeah, but I don’t know how to cook anything on it. It is one thing to assemble dishes on the line, and totally another to make the stuff that you are assembling. And that was it, my first cooking job: a choice of four appetizers and six entrées daily.
What sage advice would you pass on to those who follow in your path?
I tend to say that this business chooses you. For all of its short comings – the odd hours, high stress periods, depressing slow periods, and cut and burns – I know that I could never do anything else. I often say that I am a graduate of the school of hard nocks majoring in patience and a sense of humor. The best advice I can give is, 'there a 168 hours in a week learn to use them wisely.'
What was is your comfort food?
Comfort food for me is really quite simple. Though I probably shouldn’t, I eat pretty late in the day, I like to enjoy soup and a sandwich when I get off work. Snacks, as I call them, are often nice including assorted cheeses and sausages, pates and such. My favorite meals are those prepared by others.
Special thanks to Tres Hundertmark of The Lobster Trap for submitting this information. The Lobster Trap is located in downtown Asheville at 35 Patton Ave.
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