The love for cooking and food goes back to the childhood for Chef Jesse Schenker, when he was only five and used to see his grandmother skillfully handling an apple and putting all her tenderness in a meal. This interest just triggered his attachment for the kitchen and he reached the fancy diners of New York City from merely flipping burgers at McDonalds’ kitchen (NYSE:MCD)

At an early age, this resident of Florida started to collect the menus from nearby eating places and keenly watching numerous cooking shows. When other kids used to ride bikes and were busy in other activities, he was trying out different recipes. Always being a restless kid, his love for the kitchen acted as his natural anti-anxiety medicine.

The famous New York restaurants like Recette and another named as The Gander, have Schenker’s hard work behind them. He also is included in a list called 30 under 30 of 2012 including the greats of the food industry; he is also the winner of The Iron Chef award and he also made it up to the semi-final in James Beard Rising Star. The friendly American Restaurant, Recette received the ratings of two stars in The New York Times and the New York magazine and was a nomination for the award of James Beard. While The Gander is his new adventure and he explains that it serves refined but informal American food and is located within reach.

31 year old Schenker says that Recette is more like his experimental area where he discovers a lot of things by building the flavors of his own choice rather than acquiring a huge set up. At 14, he stepped into this business by grilling McDonalds’ (NYSE:MCD) burgers. Soon he started partying and got addicted to drugs like heroin and crack, which he later left. He was appointed in the kitchen when he was arrested. His book, All or Nothing, in which he describes his efforts, is on its way and due on September 30^th.

After learning the basics of kitchen running through a local school, he started to work step by step in a posh restaurant in Florida’s Pompano Beach like Café Maxx and a now closed restaurant in Fort Lauderdale, Mark’s Las Olas. Still he was 22 when he finally got into City Cellar located in West Palm Beach. This is when he decided it would be his profession.

He left this job after three years when he was offered a job in fancy Gordon Ramsay, London in the New York City. He says that the experience was amazing and he was taught discipline, how to organize, the technique and delicacy. At 27, he began to host a show “Mondays with Jesse” every fortnightly Monday. Schenker will be competing against other culinary stars like JJ Johnson, Max Sussman and Adam Leonati at the food festival of Under 30 Summit to earn the America’s top young chef title.

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