Jesse Kovitch

1. The menu was smashburgers and hotdogs.

2. Used large and small flat-tops and fryers mostly.

3. Strengthened the team with my work ethic.

4. Tried my best to enhance communication, which is most important.

5. Granville, OH is a small village with a lot of money and home to Denison University. A heavy local "regulars" scene, and a semi-active tourist spot. If not for the string of bars only. Off-season is summer when the students of the university left for their homes.

6. "The Lot's" kitchen was small but accommodating.

1. The menu is mainly Vietnamese inspired, with other culturally inspired cuisine (such as American, Cajun, and Mediterranean).

2. Above anything it was a bar with food that caters to that demographic.

3. A medium sized kitchen, that accommodated up to 7 or 8 cooks and a dishwasher. Stations: saute, fryer, rice bowl, salad/steamed bun/dessert, grill.

4. I was exceptional at each of these stations.

5. Started out as a food truck and proceeded to travel to different locations to sell food out of it, even with the restaurant, until they stopped just recently.

6. For a time (and I believe they have brought it back) we would do kitchen takeovers. Half the time we would bring in other restaurants or food trucks and give them a bigger stage to sell their food. The other half of the time we would create a whole new menu to sell for one day. Usually being inspired by certain cultural cuisines. I learned a lot from these takeovers.

7. I have left for other restaurants seasonally, and came back a few times. It is why the dates aren't super accurate.

1. Worked in the "bar food" kitchen, which was shared with one of the more "fine-dining" restaurants.

2. We had a long menu that had a lot of Hawaiian cuisine, as well as your typical bar food faire.

3. The kitchen I worked in was the main room-service menu, as well as the sit-down restaurant. So we had high volume, especially in our busy seasons.

4. I was mainly the saute, but I always preferred the grill position. Regardless, I excelled in both.

1. Summer job I worked on and off for about 4 years.

2. A small kitchen with a very experimental and inspired menu, which changed every year. We worked with local farms to get the most organic ingredients, and to support the farmers in the area.

3. Every year the kitchen dynamic changed, so its difficult to explain in a succinct way. But, generally it was a very small staff; my last year I mainly worked with just my chef, alone.

4. One year I was the kitchen lead; not necessarily a manager or a chef, but was in charge of everyone in the kitchen.

5. I attribute my own skills mostly to this restaurant. Not only because of the various gourmet menu items, but because of the people I worked with.

1. Short stint at a hotel restaurant called Bistro 210 inside the Peek'n Peak Resort.

2. High volume, fast paced work during ski season. Up to 800 mouths to feed at any given time.

3. I would be either grill or hot sandwich stations. Learned a lot about cooking different meats to desired temperatures in this small amount of time, simply because of the sheer amount I would need to cook every night. I am confident in these abilities now.

4. Preparation was vast, and I am also confident in my abilities to prepare most foods.

1. I was hired by the Athenaeum Hotel to solely cook for a small sister hotel within the Chautauqua Institution.

2. I would create the menu for the weeklong residents, prepare the food, cook the food to be ready to serve at the given time (all the residents ate at the same time), and plate the food to be sent to the table. I would prepare and par-cook what I could at the giant kitchen of the Athenaeum, and bring everything to the sister hotel with a golf cart.

3. It was only me doing everything, except serve the food.

4. I enjoyed being my own boss, for the most part. The chef of the Athenaeum was a resource, but he was never hands-on.