No, I did know I liked cooking growing up. Did I always know I wanted to own a restaurant? Again no, I did start to figure some of it out my senior year of high school. I started creating my own recipes; I would then invite over some friends and let them try what I had come up with. I enjoyed sharing my love of cooking with others. After High School I decided to attend a Le Cordon bleu culinary sc
hool in Austin. I was able to grow my love of cooking and add to my skill level as a chef. After culinary I started working in Houston, TX at a restaurant started by Cat Cora. I worked under a chef who encouraged me and also helped me to learn about how to run a restaurant. I learned everything from working the line to leading a shift, prep work and purchasing of product. Later on I worked at many different restaurants always learning, some lessons were good and some were umm (never do it that way LOL). During my years of work experience I began to have a dream of someday owning an Italian Restaurant. I wanted my restaurant to have food made with fresh ingredients, full of flavor and served with my style. After starting work at Salvatore’s I learned they made their own pasta fresh, also made their own bread. As I began to learn the dishes made there I thought someday maybe I could own a place like Salvatore’s. Jerry and Judy DeMaro started Salvatore’s after a trip to Italy with the goal to make fresh Italian food in the Ozarks. After running Salvatore’s for many years they were ready to retire but did not want to sell Salvatore’s to just anyone. They made me an offer that left me dumb founded! They would help me to purchase the restaurant from them, working over a 2 ½ years with them to learn as much from them as I could. Truthfully I did not believe this was happening to me. Could my dream be coming true? I worked hard and they kept their promise. Salvatore’s is now mine, with all that entails, bills upkeep, employees etc. Running a restaurant is so much more than just cooking my food. It challenges me each day with new problems to solve, some days I want to pull my hair out, other days I am walking on air still not able to comprehend that my dream came true.
