We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Edible Ed a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Edible Ed, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Was there an experience or lesson you learned at a previous job that’s benefited your career afterwards?

I used to work for Wolfgang Puck’s catering company. We catered huge Hollywood events and galas, including the Academy Awards. The night of the awards ceremony, I was in charge of wrapping a satchel of baby carrots with a garlic chive. The chives were damp, so they would be easier to wrap the perfectly steamed carrots. But the Lord gave me massive sausage fingers and using them to wrap something as delicate as a satchel of baby carrots was not easy at all. The mood in the giant kitchen was tense. The Sous Chef in charge of event was a tyrant. He paced up and down the walkways in the kitchen, making sure everyone was on task and time. If he found you not up to par, his handy, dandy metal spoon would quickly find the door of the walk in fridge or the edge of your station. Everyone was afraid and worked in silence. I was getting nervous. I was breaking more chives than satchels completed. The tyrant’s next blow surely had my name on it. But you know what? I wasn’t afraid. Not because I’m a sloppy worker but because I was doing the best I could with what I was given. When the Sous Chef approached my station, I could see his rage meter was about to explode. Confidently, I showed him why I could not complete the job handed to me and offered a solution. The next station over was the bacon wrapped date area. I suggested that because of my larger than normal fingers, I would be better suited for the other station. He was angry at the loss of product but respected the fact that I spoke up and gave him a solution. There was no metal against metal slam with my name on it that day. After moving stations, I churned out bacon wrapped dates like it was no one’s business. Even after the event was over, I had other cooks come up to me and tell me how impressed they were with my intestinal fortitude. From that moment on, I knew that if I was ever given the opportunity of leading anything, that I would do my best to delegate tasks to those whose strengths will shine. To have patience and lead by example. To make sure that I don’t strike fear in my cadre but to do my best to garner their respect with my actions.

Edward, 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?

Hi! My name is Ed and I love to COOK! Where did I find my love of cooking, you might be asking yourself? Simple. My Mom. My Mom is an amazing cook and I grew up watching her every move in the kitchen. I would constantly ask her what she was doing and why she was doing what she was doing. Infatuation with cooking set in at a very early age.

As I grew, cooking was always of interest to me but being 6’7, I fell in love with sports. All of them but especially basketball. Go figure. Ha! Every once in a while, I’d make time to get back into the kitchen but that was becoming less and less. Not to toot my own horn, but I excelled in sports.

During high school, I ran into a wall. I started noticing that my back and legs hurt, a lot during practice. My coaches and teammates thought I wasn’t tough enough and made my life extremely uncomfortable. My love for basketball disappeared. I dreaded it. Going to practice would make me sick. I left the game I loved with my whole heart. That was one of the toughest decisions that I had ever made.

During college, my mentor urged me to reconsider playing basketball but I still had a bad taste in my mouth. Plus, college was really hard for me. I needed to focus more time on my studies. What did I want to do with my degree? No clue, but I knew I wanted to graduate and make myself and family proud. While at college, I started cooking a lot more again. My first love came back to me.

After graduating from college, I decided to go to Culinary School. What an amazing experience. How can I correctly describe culinary school? It was military school with a hint of cooking. Haha! School was tough but I loved it. I worked my tail off to be the head of my class. I started working in various kitchens across SoCal, including Wolfgang Puck’s Catering Company. The biggest night of my culinary career came while working for the Oscars Celebration Party.

Believe me, kitchens are a very intimidating space, a lot of dangerous things live in the kitchen. A lot can go wrong. But if you live by fear, fear controls and hampers you and your creative success. That’s the day that the idea, the spark that would become Edible Ed was born.

During this time, my back and legs fought against me. Normal things became difficult, let alone working in kitchens for 12 hours a day. I had to leave my happy place after consulting with my doctors. My back was bad and surgery was necessary but I tried everything I could to avoid surgery. Nothing worked. All of those years of playing sports and cooking took it’s toll on my fragile back. I was born with a congenital issue that didn’t become apparent until then.

6 major back surgeries, including a back full of metal, countless injections, procedures and treatments and here I am. Unfortunately, I am unable to work professionally due to it all. But there is a silver lining to all of this. During this time I fell in love with my wonderful wife, got married and had the greatest kid in the multiverse. I had the pleasure of staying home with Emma, watching her grow everyday and become even more amazing. I wanted to continue to create, even though the things I loved were stripped away from me. Hence, Edible Ed’s! With this vehicle, I can create art in multiple facets and hopefully leave a lasting legacy.

My goal is to show everyone that anyone can cook and be creative, especially YOU! I love you and appreciate you. Thank you for your time and support. Don’t forget to SPREAD LOVE LIKE BUTTER!

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The best part of being a creative artist is that you can find so many different ways to express your feelings, your emotions and most importantly, yourself. I have gone through a lot of trials and tribulations. Every step of my journey as been marred in some sort of disappointment. From my early days of not fitting into a cultural box as a kid, looking and acting different from my peers, being rejected when trying to break into acting and writing, not being able to compete in sports at a high level or work in law enforcement and lastly, leaving my passion, the culinary world because of my broken back. It was hard for me. It still is very hard. It’s hard coming to the realization that there are certain things that I will never, ever be able to do again. That’s a tough pill to swallow. I find myself crying about that often. But then, I realized that there are still a lot of things that I can do. Being creative has allowed me the opportunity to still shine bright and to Spread Love Like Butter.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I have battled depression for as long as I can remember. I’ve lived more of my life with my depression than without it. It, sadly, has become a part of me. It has shaped who I am and how I handle certain things but one thing, it will never define who I am. Over the years, I have heard “No!” a lot. Sometimes it’s broken me. Other times, it’s propelled me. That’s something that a lot of people that see me will never understand. They will never understand how hard it is for me daily to do normal things, like walk or stand up without being in pain. But that doesn’t matter. My struggles aren’t everyone else’s struggles. All I can do, is do my best. I take pride in any and everything that has my name on it. I hope that my journey, filled with happiness, sadness, joy and pain resonates with someone. That would be Mission Accomplished.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.edibleeds.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/edible.ed.cooks/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/edible.ed.cooks/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/EdibleEds
• Other: Edible Ed’s Merch: https://edibleeds.myspreadshop.com/