“It’s not about how you start; it’s about how you finish. I started ugly, but look at me now.”
After Michael was expelled from high school, his father stepped in and told him about Job Corps. He knew about the program firsthand, having graduated from Earle C. Clements Job Corps in the 1980s. So, on the advice of his father, Michael left Miami to start Culinary Arts training at his dad’s alma mater.
The structure of the Culinary Arts program turned out to be just the thing he needed, and Michael says he still lives the same way, careful to do everything on time.
“I wasn’t used to having all those rules in my life,” Michael said. “I did what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it. When I arrived on campus, I was like, ‘What? I’m not doing all this.’ But I did it.”
The structure helped Michael turn his passion and love for cooking into a career.
“Now I’m a chef, and everything that I learned at Job Cops is exactly what I still do now. I’ve done every job in a restaurant … and I learned it all at Job Corps.”
“Now I’m a chef, and everything that I learned at Job Cops is exactly what I still do now. I’ve done every job in a restaurant … and I learned it all at Earle C.”
As much as he’s ambitious about his culinary career, one of Michael’s real passions in life is mentoring young Black men. The two go hand in hand in his business. He hires a lot of high schoolers to work for him and acts as their mentor, teaching them culinary skills and showing them that they have every path open to them to succeed in the world.
Now Michael is booked and busy. He’s the head chef at a senior living community, the owner of his own catering business and a father—but he’s not stopping there, with his sights set on a food truck.