A young chef’s passion for food leads to job success
Who gets cutlery tattooed atop their right hand?
A cook.
Who gets a knife and sharpening steel tattooed atop their left hand?
The same cook.
Meet Christopher Wright, 19, a line cook working at Earls on 16th Avenue N.W. in Calgary.
Despite earning $11 per hour in addition to biweekly tips, Wright loves his job.
“I’m always stoked to come work here,” Wright said after getting off his eight-hour shift.Christopher Wright, a line cook at Earls is working towards his Red Seal as a chef. He enjoys his hourly wage because of the flexibility it provides him.
Photo by: Christine Ramos
“I can’t imagine working nine to five. I like having my own hours, working as much as I want or as little as I want.”
Currently in his 2nd year of study at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in Culinary Arts, he is working towards his Red Seal. The Red Seal is Canada’s interprovincial standard of excellence and accreditation for chefs and other tradesmen.
Inspired by his mother’s homemade meals, Wright chose to pick up cooking as his career.
“She never had a job,” he said. “She was a homemaker and she considered that to be her job. So, she really put a lot of effort and love into her cooking. That showed and I just want to be able to provide that for other people.
“You can really taste the love when it’s in someone’s food.”
Holding his hands out and displaying his tattoos, Wright said: “I like to wear my pride on my sleeve, I guess you’d say. I’m proud of what I do.
“When I open my own restaurant and work as a head chef somewhere, I want to be focused on the people. I want to come out and talk to them. I want them to know that I care and that I love food, that this isn’t just a job.”
cramos@cjournal.ca