Where’s that?

It’s 21^st and Ludlow. It’s a gastro pub. It’s nice food. That’s where I got into it really. And they told me I should audition for MasterChef and I did.

That’s where you got into it but you totally skipped over it.

Yeah, I totally did. Sorry.

[Laughs] That’s cool. [I order eggplant parm bites–we were seated outside at Devil’s Den]. So, Rogue’s Gallery?

It’s new. It’s only been there two years. I started there, I guess, 2013. I’d work 9-5 at The Pizza Place and then go 6-11 there.

It seems like a pretty big jump. What was your position that you jumped from to be a head chef at Rogue’s Gallery.

I got hired as a line cook. All the guys that had been there had been there for six years. They were in their forties. They came with the place. And then they brought in me.

What, the previous place?

Yeah, I think it Flannigans. It was an Irish bar. They were the cooks there and I guess they came with the bar. They brought me in and the chef they had at the time, he had just graduated culinary school. He had worked there two years I guess since it had been opened as the chef.

As Rogue’s Gallery?

Yeah. And he was going to take another job at The Marriott or something and they offered me his job. I worked really hard there. Their big thing was food cost and maintaining new specials because it is a very busy lunch spot. It’s right in the middle of Center City so they get a lot of the same people everyday who eat through their menu so quickly. So, when I came in just as the line cook, it was just blowing these specials out. They were just like, holy shit. I kind of showed off in a sense.
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