I'm like most people here, I guess...with lots of different jobs under my belt.
My first job was hostess at the Rustler Steakhouse. Then I was a sales associate at the Oriental Shop, and then Thom McCann shoes, and then Melburn's, and then a pharmacy. Those were all part time, kid jobs.
First full time job was receptionist at a small local newspaper. I also took all the classified ads. From there I was an administrative assistant at a production company to the president. We made a product called Pretty As A Picture. It was an air freshener. After that I was an administrative assistant to the owner of an HVAC company. Then I was a mother full time for a few years.
When I went back to work I was the assistant manager at Brooks. From there I was the receptionist/secretary at Meadowlands Toyota.
All during this time, I still wanted what I wanted when I was 10 - a cooking career.
I answered an ad for a food service worker. During the interview I explained my love of cooking and the knowledge I'd amassed just by reading cooking books impressed the executive chef enough to give me a job. I made salads for the salad bar in the morning and served at the deli station during lunch. Within 2 months I was assisting the prep cooks until I surpassed them and got a prep cooks position. From there I was offered a cook's position and within a year I was given the title of Sous Chef.
A year later I was a chef/manager overseeing my own account. I stayed at that position for 3 years.
At that time, I left the industry for another industry, self employment. I was involved in the adult industry for 6-7 years, producing party events, and arranging private appointments with clients of discerning tastes. I met some of the world's most interesting people during that time. I was on 3 different radio programs, one of them was called Fez and someone else...I was on television talk shows three times, most with Bob Berkowitz on his show called NY at Night. My 40th birthday party was written up in all the NYC magazines like Time Out New York and Dave Chappel of Comedy Central filmed it. It's aired on his program often. Business was running on it's own until September 11, 2001. I was supposed to do a radio interview that day at 4pm...but it never happened. Instead, I watched my city crumble to it's knees from across the Hudson while I watched the smoke drift across the sky from my living room. My business was never the same after that. The disposable income disappeared because people changed their priorities. Self indulgence took a back burner. It has been 5 years and the friends that stayed in that industry are just starting to make it, again.
But, I had to get back to the business of making money. My recent jobs were the type that you don't actually put on a resume...so I said I stayed home with my kids. I got a job as a cook at a small private school. Within a year I was the General Manager of that account.
I missed being in teh kitchen so I took a position as executive chef with one of the biggest dining services in teh world. Currently, I'm working in Tarrytown NY, right next to Sleepy Hollow (of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow fame). I'm with the same company, as executive chef for one of NYCs largest universities. We have three campuses and about 5000 students in resident life.
I've also written a few things, here and there....