“I don’t know what I was thinking, but it was interesting. “I gave Gordon Ramsey a sea bass with a chocolate sauce, believe it or not,” he says. ![]() I had nothing to do with vegetarianism or veganism or anything before that, it was just an idea.”Ī couple years later, Guy had a fight with his father and left the catering company to pursue his own business, and in 2012, he was selected as a contestant on “Hell’s Kitchen.” Guy was young and daring at 26 years old. “Like most things that I do, I try to stretch it to the limit, and that one really captured me,” Guy says. The reaction was overwhelmingly positive. Guy began serving his vegetarian sushi made with black rice as one of the stations at weddings and other events. Along the way, came the idea of creating a vegetarian sushi using whatever vegetables we had in the fridge.” “It was a kosher business, which tends to be very old-school in cooking and how it presents itself,” he explains. He decided to seize the creative freedom. Though this was an incredible amount of responsibility, it gave Guy a clean slate to do whatever he wanted. In addition to handing over the food side of Esprit Events, Guy’s father also gave him the financial control and left the country. “As soon as I got out of ICE, my dad said, ‘You’re the executive chef. Instead, a unique opportunity was thrust upon him. Upon graduating, he didn’t pursue a line cook position like most of his classmates. Guy absorbed all the knowledge that he could from his instructors and gained what he considers to be a solid baseline of tools and skills to bring out into the world. “The kitchen is very similar, in a sense, to army structure, so it came very naturally to me how to operate under pressure, how to structure hierarchy and how to motivate,” he says. That started a new phase in my culinary experience - it was a curiosity, basically, in how everything was made, how food reacts, and how I could get better and learn as much as I could.”ĭespite a lack of professional culinary experience, Guy felt right at home when he began culinary school, thanks to his military background. “At ICE, I got to experience flavors and techniques at a very high level, so I was mesmerized by it. All my memories are related somehow to food,” Guy says. He just had an obsession with cooking and ambition to create his own success. Though he had tried many front-of-house jobs, Guy had no professional kitchen training when he started Culinary Arts. “After sitting in the class for a few months, I decided I couldn’t do that anymore and wanted to pursue what I really love, my passion, and went to ICE,” he says. Guy then went to college as a computer engineering major but quickly realized that it was not the right path for him. “I was a bartender, a server, a busboy, a manager - anything you can think of.” “I worked in every possible position in the restaurant business,” Guy says. Afterwards, in 2005, he came to New York to work with his father. ![]() I fell in love with cooking when I was a little boy,” he says, recalling the Moroccan-Jewish kitchen that taught him about fresh vegetables, herbs and spices.Īt age 18, Guy entered the Israeli Defense Force, where he completed his three-year obligation as a fighter in the infantry. “Since my dad wasn’t around, I spent a lot of time with my mom and my grandma. He started a kosher catering company called Esprit Events while Guy stayed in Israel with the rest of his family. When Guy was a child, his father moved to the United States with the classic immigrant dream of opening a business. Now, he owns and operates Beyond Sushi, a vegan restaurant chain that has taken New York City by storm. ![]() Raised to love cooking by his mother and grandmother in Israel, Guy fulfilled his military duty and began a degree in computer engineering before he enrolled at ICE to pursue a career in food.
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