We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful David Rashty. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with David below.

David, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Parents can play a significant role in affecting how our lives and careers turn out – and so we think it’s important to look back and have conversations about what our parents did that affected us positive (or negatively) so that we can learn from the billions of experiences in each generation. What’s something you feel your parents did right that impacted you positively.

In 2006 the Dr found a spot on my dad’s pancreas. I was living in FL at the time and jumped on the first flight back to NY (where I grew up in Sands Point, Long Island)
I spent every day of the last 4 months of my dad’s life with him – cooking every day – also taking him to Dr’s appts.
My dad was in and out of the hospital over the last 4 months – he passed away in his own home – and me as his primary care giver ( I was a paramedic for NYC while in college)
Before my dad passed away he told me to do do something with cooking (it was a hobby, but never thought about doing it professionally)
I was a stock broker -I sold my business after he passed- I enrolled in culinary school a month later at French culinary in NYC

My dad instilled a work ethic from a very early age and his illness brought me to cooking

David, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I think I explained some of that in the previous question

Even though I got into this profession late in life? I had the opportunity to work in some of the nations best restaurants – restaurant daniel and cafe boulud are Michelin rated-
My first culinary job was at Jean George’s -3 star Michelin.
I also had the opportunity to learn and cook in Kanazawa Japan
My hard work and discipline come from my dads work ethic, but I also have trained in many martial arts over the last 40 years – I have several black belts

I custom tailor my dinners to the likes of my clients- not every menu is the same. I found out how adventurous my clients are and how open to trying new ingredients – sometimes unique ingredients are avail and I produce authentically created dishes – sea urchin, ostrich, kangaroo, alligator, lionfish, scorpionfish…and many other not so common ingredients
I am always willing to experiment with new ingredients- and products that no other chefs in the area are utilizing

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

Word of mouth and referrals – I donate my time and dinners to local charities that have impact in the local communities. It gets my name out and people have the opportunity to try my artful plates

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I also donate my time to the American
Red Cross – I am the regional feeding lead for south Florida – I set up the nat hq feeding ops for Hurricane Ian, Idalia, Debbie and many others – the hurricane devastated my catering business – many clients lost their homes- and they are just now finishing their homes over 2 years later
I worked.Ian for over 2 months and helping the community helped me make it through a really rough time

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Www.chefdavidrashty.com
• Instagram: Chefdaver
• Facebook: David Rashty
• Linkedin: David Rashty
• Twitter: David Rashty
• Youtube: Chef David Rashty