Life & Work with Christopher Spinosa of West Palm Beach, FL

Today we’d like to introduce you to Christopher Spinosa.

Hi Christopher, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I started my culinary career in NY. I worked as a dishwasher/prepcook for a local restaurant group in my hometown of Massapequa Park. I worked during my college breaks while I was studying Music at the University of Connecticut. The partying habits weren’t going to pay for themselves of course.

I started to really fall in love with the work. Music was all finesse and calm practicing. Even my peers were just these very simple and quiet people. There’s certainly nothing wrong with that, however I am a very eccentric and outgoing person. Kitchen work spoke to me because of the chaos and the high energy that it brings with it. These guys were cracking jokes while working over fire, sharp knives, and relentlessly sweating. I absolutely loved it.

The real professional work started in New York City for me, just a stones throw from my hometown. I went to the Institute of Culinary Education in Manhattan, took classes a few nights a week, and before I graduated I got myself a job at Jean-Georges Spice Market. From there I started to cut my teeth in New York’s rich and gritty restaurant scene.

Admittedly I was a jumper, help jobs for a few months to a year. Once I got my first souschef gig I was more mature, knew that staying longer and braving the various storms yielded better results for me and my career. I bounced between Brooklyn and Manhattan, working with old cohorts and other chefs who I made a positive mark on. Things were amazing, I was learning alot, I was getting after it. I felt completely dialed into my career.

Then COVID hit…

Much like most of my fellow chefs in NY, I felt the restaurant industry come to a grinding halt. Even with the restrictions being lifted and eased in the waves that they were, we still felt no return to business as usual. I started to question how long this was going to last and what it would mean for my career. Finally, I made the decision in 2021 to move down to FL where restaurants were still open. My destination was West Palm Beach.

I found myself a job at a restaurant for a while and then decided to make the jump into private chef work. It took a long time for me to build up a client book, website, protocols, etc. As I was building the business up, a casting agency reached out to me to interview for a cooking show. Later on, I found out it was Season 2 of Next Level Chef I was interviewing for.

After going through the months of interviews, I made it onto the season. I competed, made friends, confronted my own culinary demons, and pulled a version of myself out that I didn’t think existed previously.

I made it to the end, returned home, and resumed building my private chef business. Now, I primarily serve athletes and I travel more than I’ve traveled before in my life for my clients. I would not trade it for anything.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There have been so many struggles along the way. in the beginning it was simply learning to cook. Then, it was learning to manage people. I had to figure out if I was cut out for certain things or not, but I persevered.

The biggest obstacle I’ve faced? Building my own business. It’s very easy for anyone with a pulse to walk into a fully functioning restaurant that has its protocols, systems, and staff in place to help generate business.

To do it all by yourself is a huge challenge and demands more consistency and showing up than kitchens did for me.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My background has been in high-end/fine dining. That level of cooking is crucial for any chef to be versed in, especially as a private chef. Clients do want a level of “wow” factor with their meals. With that being said, I now cook mainly for athletes and I’ve been pushing my high end cooking talents into the direction of being more nutrition-oriented. Yes, athletes do require the best quality of food and the right types of food for their performance. However, regular people also need to have a certain level of that performance standard in order to preserve our bodies, our energy, and our overall health.

Now, there are three cuisines I’m very passionate about. Southeastern Asian, Middle Eastern, and French style cooking. French cooking is like the classical music genre of the cooking world. Any refined cooking start with French techniques, so it is important to know them. In addition, I do love food with big and bold flavors, I’ve found that the middle eastern side of cooking, as well as South East Asian, tend to scratch that itch for me.

So what does set me apart from others? I don’t just know how to cook the flavors, I understand them very well. I also know how to incorporate these flavors into someone’s nutritional regiment. That to me, is an impressive talent.

Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
Risk taking is the name of the game these days. I moved down to Florida without having a job or anything in mind, and I didn’t know anyone in West Palm Beach either. I basically came here, set up shop, and started getting a lay of the land the old fashioned way. In addition, I left the restaurant I did work at to start a business that didn’t really see any business for a solid year. During a time like that you’re just burning through cash and running on hope and fumes.

I absolutely see myself as a risk taker and I don’t see that dissolving anytime soon.

People need to fail more and be okay that it will be a possibility. I hate people that need to be perfect every time in order to do something. The spirit of innovation and success is birthed in the unknown and failures. So get the hell out there and make some mistakes, learn from them, and then before you know it you’re the person people come to for questions.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.chef-zaddy.com
• Instagram: @chef_zaddy
• Other: TikTok: chef.zaddy