For a long time Jordan Khan has been an inspiration to me. I first heard his name as a 19-year-old working at Alinea in Chicago where Jordan had worked years before and who had a similar trajectory as I had, working at the French laundry at almost the same age that I was then. At the time Alinea had a near mythological group of chefs that had come from that kitchen  - Jordan Kahn, John Shields, Dave Baron, Alex Stupax, Curtis Duffy, Andrew Graves, Andrew Brochu, Jeff Pikus, Greg Baxtrom, and of course Grant Achatz, and there I was. What a wild thing to be in such a kitchen and part of it's lineage.

After a year and a half in that kitchen in pursuit of cutting my teeth in various restaurants to learn more about food and cooking, I made my way to Washington where I worked at the restaurant Willow’s inn before moving to San Fra...