My Story

I learned to bake as a boy at my mother’s and grandmother’s ovens. June Steele and Patricia Collins set me on the pursuit of creations as delicious and beautiful as the ones for which they are known. As patient as they are proficient, they started me on the basics, and then inspired me to hone my craft.

When it came time to venture out in the world, I started at the beginning: dishwasher at a local family-owned restaurant in my home town, working my way up to line cook. A stint at the local grocery store taught me how to butcher and present beef, pork and poultry, as well as create delicacies for the deli case.

Through high school and college I worked at a Midwestern favorite called Max and Erma’s. First, it was the kitchen: cold-line cook, line cook, and expediting. Then on to the front of the house: bar tending and table service, as well as manager of the location’s popular raw bar and Sunday brunch. 

Bitten by the restaurant bug, I spent several years as General Manager of Jimmy’s Place Upstairs, a well-regarded Columbus steak house.

 I detoured geographically and career-wise to spend two decades in California as a video editor, working on numerous televisions series and creating deluxe edition DVDs for Disney Animation and New Line Cinema. My original calling kept calling, however, and I created Collinary, providing personal and corporate catering for friends and associates from my entertainment industry network.

Today, aging parents and family responsibilities have brought me and Collinary home to Ohio.

FORMALIZED TRAINING: Mom and Grandma’s lessons have been enhanced by coursework from the Culinary Institute of America on both sides of the country: Hyde Park in New York and St. Helena in California.