You have to love a catering chef with a sense of adventure. Joseph Jenkins, 45, the executive chef at Jordan in Cheshire, embraces the challenges that come with his profession.
“You have to be like MacGyver in the kitchen,” said Jenkins, referencing the Richard Dean Anderson show of the mid-80s, early ‘90s about a secret agent who could seemingly make a nuclear bomb out of a matchstick and a marshmallow.
Jenkins isn’t so much building pyrotechnic devices (which is a good thing because he has cooked for presidents from Reagan to Clinton) as he is setting up kitchens night after night in different locations. “Sometimes a utensil or a part gets left behind and you have to come up with a creative solution,” he said.
In spite of the occasional logistical glitch, Jenkins makes it seem as if he would work in no other field.
“I really love the catering industry because each day is different. I try to keep things different and fresh,” he said. “My forte is the bigger events, the high-end events and parties. That’s where I shine,” he said.
Jenkins welcomes the opportunities that Jordan Catering affords him. “It’s not like going to a super corporate structure. I can be very creative and implement my style of cooking.”
Jenkins is a classically trained chef who was graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., in 1985.
After completing his culinary training, Jenkins traveled France and Italy honing his skills. Upon his return to the U.S., Jenkins began working for Glorious Food, a Manhattan catering company. It’s an affiliation he would resume after operating his own catering business for nine years in Stamford.
One important lesson he has taken away from more than two decades behind the stove is to be evolutionary in his menu offerings.
“I try to stay up with the trends, but I am a classically trained chef,” he said, explaining that he might fuse together French cuisine with Asian influences — while making it acceptable for hundreds of people to eat at once. “That’s my specialty,” he said.
Reader response:
“You are a chef after my own heart. I am a small business caterer or was until my husband pass away. But I have the same experience with big events {my favorite} they are a rush to do and let all your creative juices flourish.
I try to stay in touch with what is going on in the catering world, because it fascinates me even after 20 years in the business.” — Josie, Castle Hills First Baptist Church
