It all began one day when my boss for installing heating and air conditioners in new homes (back during the housing boom) laid me off for the winter!

I was a "back talking" 24 year old kid! Very good at what I did! I was doing 2.5 houses a week, when most of the other guys were only doing one!

My boss laid me off one winter to "teach me a lesson" and oh boy did he! I took the winter off and snowboarded up in Tahoe most of the time! Then I had an opportunity to go backpacking through Thailand for 6 weeks and Cambodia for one week! That changed my life!! When I got back home, it was time to get back to work. Even though I was good at what I did, I was not happy. So, I thought long and hard about what I could do that would make me happy! I always loved to cook and everyone always told me how good I was at it! I researched culinary schools and they were very expensive. I had never worked in a kitchen and wasn't 100% sure I would like it. I got a job at an Italian restaurant in town and LOVED it!! I enrolled in the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco! I was told in my first week in school that I would need to work in a restaurant for 3 months to complete my certificate and that they could help us do it abroad. Right then and there I said "I am going to Tuscany"! After my 1 year program and getting my certificate for culinary arts, I packed up my knives and came to Tuscany for 5 months. I met my now wife after the first month and that's when my story turned into our story, 13 years ago!!