Chef of the Month: Meet Our Fearless Leader!
Chef Dan began his culinary career working under celebrated Belgian chef Henri Bergmans. After earning his way to executive chef positions in both Southern California and Denver, he finally found his true calling in cooking instruction.
Following 37 years of cooking professionally and 18 years of instructing home, recreational cooks, Chef Dan finally decided to purchase The Seasoned Chef Cooking School in 2011 to grow it to what it is today.
Keep reading to learn more about Chef Dan’s experience, and a few cooking tips and tricks he was willing to share along the way!
Throughout your years of experience, you obviously had many forms of official training that helped you rise through the culinary ranks. Though did you have any form of unofficial "training" or mentors that helped you get to where you are today?
Absolutely! Two individuals immediately come to mind.
When I was hired for my first Executive Chef job in late 1989, I was coming into a situation where the food was not good and the quality was lacking. Sharon Polster was the individual that brought me on and trusted me to be an Executive Chef for the first time. While I was hesitant to step into the role, Sharon promised to mentor me and teach me how to lead a kitchen, as long as I stayed committed to high quality food. Sharon has a brilliant mind for food, not just in flavors, but in presentation, ingredients, and creativity in leading a team. My experience in working with Sharon expanded my repertoire rapidly. Within less than a year, the food improved, our reputation improved, and I gained an incredible set of skills that I’ll continue to use through the rest of my life.
After about a year in that same role, it was time to bring on a new Sous Chef. Darren Denny stepped into the role. While he was much younger than me, he had a brilliant mind for flavors, ingredients, and creative recipes. I learned from him as much as he learned from me! Darren is now the Executive Chef at San Diego Yacht Club if you’d like to check out his work.
Was there anything specifically that drove you towards cooking instruction?
The first cooking class I ever led was at a private club in Southern California in 1991. From there, I continued to hone and perfect my teaching skills by leading classes sporadically.
I most loved that I was able to relate to students on a personal level. Professional Chefs use a very different vocabulary and typically tend to thrive in a more competitive environment. Alternatively, recreational cooks really thrive when cooking is taught in an approachable way!
Forget what you see on TV. It’s intimidating! Cooking should be creating good, delicious food made from good, high quality ingredients. That’s it, plain and simple. Everything goes back to basic skills. Learn the techniques and, over time, you’ll be able to use those techniques with new ingredients... then you’re off to the races!
Though I will admit that cooking is not a skill that’s easy to teach yourself. Take it from the many professional Chefs and recreational cooks that have tried. Learning from a professional so that you can truly experience how the techniques are correctly done will make all the difference and will make your time in the kitchen much simpler and more enjoyable.
If you had one piece of advice for a new person finding their way around the kitchen, what would you suggest?
Don’t be in a hurry. Practice with patience!
Once you’ve learned the basic techniques, remember that you have every skill you need. Though you will have to practice. You’ll use the same skills over and over again for different results thanks to using different ingredients. Be patient. You’ve got this!
What Chef Dan says about The Seasoned Chef:
Every day, I still look forward to working with the other members of this team and teaching classes. I simply love working with corporate team building groups and teaching home and recreational chefs the basics of home cooking! We want our students to leave our classes having learned how they can simply, affordably, quickly make a delicious and healthy meal at home.
Our students love coming to our classes. They are motivated, engaged, and excited to learn. Over the years, I’ve found that the best moment of my day is when I am able to see my student’s eyes light up - either virtually or in person - because they have learned something new and are able to create a delicious dish on their own. That’s why I do what I do and still love working every day!
You can find Chef Dan leading several of the classes on our calendar each month, including our most popular class Basic Skills Every Cook Should Know!
Keep checking the blog for some of Chef Dan’s favorite recipes that he’ll be sharing across the month, too. As a quick teaser… we already know that they’re a pleasure for the palate!