For those of you who have dined at Cafe Miranda on even a pretty regular basis there are probably a lot of things you do not know about Chef Kerry Altiero. With this blog we are going to give you a peak into the madness, the firestorm, that is this intriguing Rockland, Maine based character who is today primarily focused on food.
Welcome to the ride…
What people would want to know about you.
(as told by Chef Kerry)
I had just graduated from a parochial high school at age 17 and was getting ready to go to a Jesuit College. Must have been 1974, 1975. I took the money I received after graduation and went off, bought some motorcycles and a van and went Motocross for four years. Eventually I ended up in Allentown, PA selling motorcycles.
How did you end up in a kitchen?
In the wintertime, when not much was going on in terms of racing, I was the dishwasher at Bob and Dick Billinsky’s Hotel and Restaurant. Actually, it was a restaurant with a couple of rooms upstairs. A woman I knew was the cook there and needed someone to do dishes. One day the grill cook burned himself so the cook said hey can you cook. I was a vegetarian, cooked for myself, lot of ethnic food. I told her I knew how to cook a steak. So she gave me a shot and said I was better than the past line cook. I was hired. I liked the pace and the intensity of the kitchen. The metal. That winter I met Evelyn (Chef Kerry’s ex-wife) and wanted something more stable than racing. We got married, I liked the kitchen atmosphere, and that was it.
Check back later in the week for more from the road/in the kitchen with Chef Kerry.
