James Gillespie

Name and Title:
James Gillespie, executive chef, Sunset Grill.

Age: 42

First professional cooking job:
Youngstown Yacht Club, Youngstown, N.Y.

Culinary influences:
First job was as a dishwasher, and the chef pushed me to start doing prep work and then later cooking.

Favorite dish at a Hawaii restaurant?
Shoyu chicken with a lot of shredded cabbage. I love the cabbage and sauce.

Favorite dish at your own place?
Fire-roasted pork rib chop. The pork I am using now has terrific flavor.

What’s always in your refrigerator?
Beer.

What do you eat when you’ve finished a long shift in the kitchen?
Nowadays I try not to eat too late at night. I eat more in the morning and early afternoon.

What motivates you?
Being in a very open kitchen and able to see people’s faces as they dine. I want to do my very best to insure everybody has a truly fine dining experience, and if somebody is having a bad day, I can see that. I get a little self-conscious thinking it may be my food and I try even harder to do better!

Which person, dead or alive, would you most enjoy cooking for?
My grandfather.

What ingredient could you not live without?
Demi glace.

E-mail this story | Print this page | Comments (0) | Archive | RSS Comments (0) |

Most Recent Comment(s):

Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.