Chef Distro remembers the first meal he made for himself. He was 6 years old, and his mom was going out for the night. She told him to fix his own dinner.
“I cooked some pancakes and eggs, and I fried some mush meat in the pan, and then I had some cookies,” he said. “I made that all for myself, and after that, I just never stopped doing it.”
Born in Milwaukee, Distro was raised in Chicago and Florida. He started his first kitchen job at 14, working at Boston Market, a chicken chain on the East Coast. He continued to work there on and off until he was 21. Then Distro worked as a traveling chef for NASCAR in Daytona before diving into the world of fine dining in Chicago. Before he moved to Eugene, he was working at a Michelin-recommended breakfast restaurant called Jam, and had been in the food industry for 15 years…