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 Chef Tony has been in the kitchen as long as he can remember. At the age of 4, his grandmother Paulette took a picture of him wearing an oversized apron while pretending to "stir the sauce" with a wooden spoon. Being from the Provence region in the South of France, she knew an aspiring chef when she saw one. Soon, she began to show her grandson not only how to properly prepare the food he would grow up loving, but also how to share that love of food and cooking with others. Growing up and learning to cook food the French way gave this future chef a good foundation, but a career in cooking would have to wait. After high school, new interests developed. Tony went to college and studied music composition and film/video production. But the desire to be in the kitchen, what he always called his "happy place," was always there.

Years later, it was a happy accident through cable channel surfing that rekindled Tony's desire to pursue his passion. Knowing that a composer friend of his had written the theme music for the Discovery Channel's "Great Chefs, Great Cities," he tuned in one afternoon to catch it. But as soon as that week's episode started and he saw the nearly identical Lyonnais onion tarte his grandmother taught him to make, he soon forgot the reason he had tuned in. As fate would have it, Julia Child was on an hour later on PBS and, well, you can imagine where Tony ended up that night--back in the kitchen, working on his grandmother's onion tarte!

Chef Tony has worked as an apprentice chef in three commercial kitchens. Learning many four-star restaurant techniques under Memphis-based Chefs Raji Jallepalli and Erling Jensen (usually during their busiest nights) were eye opening experiences. After moving to the West Coast and spending the last 12 years in the corporate rat race, he became a member of the United States Personal Chef Association.

 

He is a recent graduate of the Culinary Business Academy, as well as a graduate of the CAJ Skills and Business Center's Culinary Program in Sacramento, CA, and is ServSafe certified. This past year, he was privileged to work as an apprentice for a short time under Executive Chef Christophe Earhardt in Roseville, CA.  It was sometimes frantic and often times dramatic yet all of these and the other culinary experiences helped Tony to keep his vision, set his sights and hone his skills, which would eventually lead to a Personal Chef Service.

 

And and by the way, he still loves to cook his personal favorite--French Cuisine!