Guest Chef Nights give FareStart students and graduates a coveted opportunity: to work with a renowned chef who curates the menu for an exquisite meal. Sometimes they’re tasked with a side dish or sauce, working the fry station or plating the dessert.
On Chef Brian Clevenger’s Guest Chef Night, Aries (he/him) fielded a big assignment: grilling New York Steaks for the main dish of the sold-out evening.
It’s hard to get steaks right and easy to mess them up, but he wasn’t worried. Growing up, Aries learned everything he knows about grilling steaks from his dad. He knew he was up to the challenge and proved it, getting a steady stream of compliments from the chef all evening long — and a job offer that same night to join the staff at Raccolto, one of Chef Clevenger’s restaurants.
“They hired me because I cooked 139 perfect steaks,” Aries said. “I only burned one.”
From Uplift Northwest to FareStart
Aries lived on the streets for a while after moving to Seattle a couple years ago. Eager for job training, he reached out to Uplift Northwest, which helped him get a bartending permit and food handler’s card, then referred him to FareStart, which was enrolling students in the Barista and Customer Service Program.
Aries loved learning about the history and origins of coffee, how to make drinks he had never tasted before, like doppio (Italian for “double espresso”) and Turkish coffee, slow-cooked on a bed of hot sand.
“They had so much insight on different traditions of making coffee, which I thought was really interesting,” Aries said.
Toward the end of the program, he applied for as many jobs as he could and took the first offer he got, in the kitchen of a burger restaurant. He’d been hoping to work in a coffee shop, but the front-of-house training he got in the barista program qualified him for restaurant work as well.
“I was applying like crazy,” Aries recalls. “As the barista program was ending, I knew I’d have no money and needed rent. When I got the job offer, I was like, ‘Cool. Solid. I got it.’”
Everything was going well, until the manager at the restaurant started making transphobic comments to Aries, a transgender male. It wasn’t the work environment he knew he deserved.
“[FareStart] showed me it was OK to be different,” Aries said. “I was transitioning on testosterone while I started the barista program. It was a very scary and fragile time for me, but they made me feel very loved.”
Circling Back to FareStart
Aries returned to FareStart and went through the Food Pathways Program, graduating early after getting a job at Din Tai Fung. He rose to the challenge of fast-paced dinner shifts at the Taiwanese restaurant, working Fridays and weekends, even after he got hired at Raccolto, working Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Working six days a week was exhausting, but the positions paired well.
“At Raccolto, they’re very calm about teaching,” Aries said. “The whole motto there is ‘Be slower. You don’t have to rush.’”
This is his first time working in fine dining and he’s relishing every opportunity to sharpen his skills and build confidence.
“Aries is doing great,” said Raccolto Executive Chef Liam Byres. “FareStart does an excellent job of teaching the fundamentals. I would say that Aries is strongest in his ability to learn — like really learn — and continue to grow.”
Chef Liam is as impressed by Aries’s teachability as he was by those 139 perfect Guest Chef Night steaks — so much that FareStart has risen to the top of his list of partners for sourcing future employees.
“I would rather hire someone from FareStart than someone who just graduated from culinary school,” Chef Liam said.
Aries gets emotional thinking about how far he’s come, and how hard it’s been to get to this place in life, where he feels a greater sense of stability and hope for the future than ever.
“It makes me want to cry,” he said. “My childhood was not easy. Being able to finally take a deep breath and realize it’s going to be OK from now on. I’m not fearing for my life. I’m safe. I’m moving into my own place. I have a full-time job. My boss is great. I can’t express it in words. It’s just amazing.”
Aries plans to stay in touch with FareStart and work Guest Chef Nights whenever invited. And who knows — maybe someday he’ll be the headliner who sells out a special evening and mentors a group of FareStart students and graduates excited for the opportunity to work alongside him.
Learn more about FareStart’s Food Pathways and Barista & Customer Service Programs, and about reserving your spot for an upcoming Guest Chef Night.
