Okay, so I can cook.

Twenty years ago I finished college and went out to Hollywood to pursue an acting career. It went pretty well. I was one of those working actors you’d see in an airport or at the grocery store and say, “Hey, don’t you go to my church?” I did a couple of years as the skirt chasing Dr. McGuire on DOOGIE HOWSER, M.D., and half a dozen years as Claudia’s violin teacher, Ross, on the cult favorite PARTY OF FIVE. I played Richard Carpenter in THE KAREN CARPENTER STORY, got eaten by a shark in JAWS, THE REVENGE, and raped Reba McIntyre in IS THERE LIFE OUT THERE? I also starred in about ten other movies of the week you can catch now then on Lifetime at 3am. Over the years I did the theatre I love so much all over the country – I even did a couple of long runs in New York City.

I loved my acting career and am proud of the work that I was able to do over twenty years in show business, but it was time for a change. The reality of constantly convincing the people on the other side of the table that “you are the one,” takes its toll. I was ready to find a new career. So very early one morning in 2003, at the suggestion of my partner Richie Arpino, I wound up in the kitchen of Souper Jenny with chef Jennifer Levison, looking for a new outlet for my artistic passion. “Souper Jenny”, the person and the café, is an Atlanta gem. Jennifer took me in as an apprentice, taught me what makes her food and her café so special and then offered me a job. Apparently the fact that I showed up day after day for the first few months for free, and the fact that I somehow understood how she approached the food, made her comfortable enough to entrust me with the keys to the shop. It was good timing all around because she was about to adopt a child and she needed a co-chef.

So after two great years, learning, creating, and most of all laughing with my mentor and friend, it is time for me to leave the comfort of her kitchen and create my own. With the blessing and support Souper Jenny, MetroFresh is born.

The amazing thing about the art of cooking is that no two people will make the same thing the same way. Souper Jenny is sending me off with the confidence that all those early mornings standing next to her, have given me the tools to create my own food, my own way.

I have my new career thanks to the kindness, love, and support of one of the world’s greatest human beings, my teacher, my mentor, my friend, Souper Jenny.