You have to love a catering chef with a sense of adventure.
Joseph Jenkins, 45, the executive chef at Jordan Catering 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 TV 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.”
Jenkins welcomes the opportunities that Jordan Catering affords him.
“It’s not like going to a super corporate structure,” he said. “I can be very creative and implement my style of cooking.”
Jenkins graduated in 1985 from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. After completing his culinary training, Jenkins honed his skills in France and Italy.
Upon his return home, 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.”
