Written By: Michael Sandoval

The Memory

“Accidents sometimes change your life”……….

I thought this section was going to be largely describing the many places that I have been within the my life time. As I started to look through my passport I began to get really excited….I opened my laptop after looking through the eighty passport pages filled with stamps from over 90 different countries and started to write…..

After the first paragraph, my writing came to a sudden stop! I realized something…. They were literally only Stamps…..

What was the deeper meaning? How did I get to experience these so called “Stamps”? Where did that opportunity come from?

Were the places or The Moments that actually mattered hidden by the beauty and romance of walking through the Sistine Chapel , Swimming in Aruba or walking the Great Wall of China?

They were!……..

So, let me back to the reality and the true beauty!

The beautiful reasons why I’m able to have those non-tangible experiences that have made me……. “ME”!

Vocational school (Area Technical Trade Center) was an accidental occurrence. It was not something that was chosen specifically because I wanted to cook for the rest of my life. While attending, I began to realize that the excitement of cooking was within the challenge of understanding depth, detail, engineering and the artistic approach.

“This was my Profession”!

During my senior year of high school I began working for a small Asian Fusion restaurant.

Two years later while attending College I saw an opportunity to join the Thomas Keller Restaurant Group in Las Vegas NV.

Knowledge of them holding interviews came to me from a college classmate. Unfortunately the information of the interviews taking place came to me just before their last day. I got to the building where they were holding interviews and I was told that all of the Chefs had already gone back to Napa Valley. I casually asked if I could wait…..

With hopes in mind, I waited for a few hours in my firmly starched shirt and recently dry cleaned suite. When all hope was lost, a gentleman in a Chefs jacket opened the door saying good night to his team. He looked at me and asked if anyone had helped me.

I described that I had been waiting for a few hours in hopes that I could sit down with someone for an interview.

He took my resume……… As he read the resume, he looked up and asked; did you attend the Area Technical Trade Center (ATTC)? My respectful response… “Yes sir”!

He proceeded to tell me that his wife (who was a chef, studying to be a professor) was a student teacher at the school…

It was fate…….. “The First Day of the Rest of My Life”.

I was 18 years old…..